Repentance of the people. Do we need nationwide repentance? In Russia, banks have proposed blocking cards when receiving suspicious payments.

Over the past decade, literature has been distributed among the Orthodox community in which every Orthodox Christian is encouraged to repent of the sin of regicide; even specific sins against the royal power were listed.
However, only since 2004, some supporters of such “repentance” began to openly proclaim the need for every resident of Russia to undergo a special “Rite of repentance for the sin of regicide.” For this purpose, bright posters, and now bright Internet sites, invite each of us to take part in the so-called. The ceremony of Worldwide Repentance of the Russian people for the sin of regicide, which is held in the village of Taininsky near Moscow at the monument to the last Russian emperor, and more recently in some dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Why do the adherents of “conciliar repentance” call us to go to the Moscow region and what exactly do they call us to repent of there? What is the argument for such an opinion and does it agree with the Tradition of the Orthodox Church?
In order to answer these questions, we will have to turn to the propaganda literature that is now being distributed among the Orthodox.

Here they are trying to convince an Orthodox person that the Russian people are burdened with nothing more or less than a curse for the sin of betrayal and murder of the Royal Family in 1917, and the violation of the oath of the Russian people given in 1613 with the accession of the Romanov dynasty to the Throne. This creates the belief that in 1613, the oath of allegiance to the Tsar was taken not only by those directly involved in the activities of the Zemsky Sobor, but also by all subsequent generations of Russians who share responsibility for the atrocities of the Bolsheviks, and in general of all residents of Soviet Russia. Among the supporters of “repentance for the king” a strange doctrine is spreading that “the curse weighs heavily on the people, and it will pass on to our descendants from generation to generation until we repent”.

Obviously, all Orthodox Christians here are called to repent for a crime that they personally did not commit. After all, the calls for “repentance” are not so much about those who actually participated in the execution of the family of the royal martyrs, but about the entire population of Russia.
Even the concept of a “Conciliar Personality” of the Russian people, unknown to the Church, is introduced, which supposedly needs to repent for renouncing the Tsar and for his murder. This new term is used to preach the need for Orthodox Christians to repent for the sins of their ancestors, some of whom actually lost their faith and participated in the rebellion against the government of the Russian Empire, and also wished the death of its Emperor.

In the Orthodox tradition, on the contrary, it is customary to offer not repentance in relation to the sins of our ancestors, but prayers so that the Lord will forgive their sins. Moreover, we offer such prayers only for those members of the Church who, at least before death, brought to God all possible repentance for their deeds, and thereby reconciled with the Lord and the Church.
And the belief that, regardless of a person’s closeness to God, he is responsible for the sins of his loved ones, or that the Lord imputes repentance and piety to the unrepentant sinner of the righteous is based on a magical attitude towards human salvation, therefore such a view cannot be considered Orthodox.

The teaching that the guilt of one person's sin is passed on to his descendants is contrary to the Word of God. According to the words of the Psalmist, “A man will never redeem his brother, nor will he give God a ransom for him.”(Ps. 49:8).
During the time of the prophet Ezekiel, it was believed that children were responsible for the sins of their parents.

This is the answer the Lord gave through this prophet: “If a son is born to someone, who, seeing all the sins of his father, sees and does not do the like of them... fulfills My commandments and walks according to My commandments, then this one will not die for the iniquity of his father; he will be alive. And his father... will die for his iniquity. You say: “Why does not the son bear the guilt of his father?” Because the son acts lawfully and righteously, he will live... The son will not bear the guilt of the father, and the father will not bear the guilt of the son, the righteousness of the righteous remains with him, and the iniquity of the wicked remains with him.”(Ezek.18:14-20).

All this leads us to the idea of ​​the need to repent during our earthly career. After all, after the death of a person, only the prayers of the Church can help him, and only if the beginnings of repentance were present before death. But never in the history of the Church have there been attempts to be baptized for a deceased person (which is what adherents of the Mormon sect are doing now), nor to repent of his sins in confession. All this is a departure from the ancient tradition of performing the Sacrament of Confession, where the priest convinces the penitent to repent only for his sins ( “Everything you made, the tree you made”), and not for the sins of ancestors or living relatives. It is impossible to repent for another person, you can only pray for him. “I ask you, beloved brethren, let us confess each of our sins while the sinner is still in this life, when his confession can be accepted, when the satisfaction and absolution performed by the priests is pleasing to the Lord.”, - this is how St. St., who lived in the 3rd century, instructs us. Cyprian of Carthage.
The history of the ancient Church tells us about the existence of such a form of repentance as public confession. Gradually it was replaced by secret repentance before the priest. Whether publicly or secretly, a Christian always repented of his sin, and not of the sins of his neighbors.

Perhaps, due to a misunderstanding, such expressions as “inherited sin” were included in the leaflets being distributed, because according to the teachings of the Church, one can only talk about the ancestral sin of Adam and Eve, the consequences of which (a person’s inclination towards evil and sin, and not the guilt itself for personal the sin of Adam and Eve) passed on to all people. But we accept deliverance from the consequences of original sin once in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. The Church does not know any other “hereditary sins”.

However, it is important to understand how to understand all those calls for repentance of the Russian people for apostasy and the murder of the Tsar, which are so often quoted by adherents of “conciliar repentance.”
Shortly after the murder of the royal family in 1918, Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, expressed his attitude towards this atrocity: “But we, to our sorrow and shame, have lived to see the time when obvious violation of God’s commandments is not only no longer recognized as a sin, but is also justified as legal. So, the other day a terrible thing happened: the former Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich was shot... We must, obeying the teachings of the Word of God, condemn this thing, otherwise the blood of the executed person will fall on us, and not only on those who committed it...”
There is no doubt that people who approve of a crime turn out to be complicit in it. Therefore, everyone who even mentally approved the murder of the royal family (as well as any unrighteous murder) must repent at the Sacrament of Confession.
A similar idea was expressed at the All-Diaspora Council of Bishops in 1938 by Archbishop. John (Maksimovich) : “It is not only individuals who are guilty of the sin of regicide, but the entire people, who rejoiced on the occasion of the overthrow of the Tsar and allowed Him to be humiliated, arrested and exiled, leaving Him defenseless in the hands of criminals, which itself predetermined the end... there is still no real repentance , the crimes committed are clearly not condemned, and many active participants in the revolution now continue to claim that it was impossible to do otherwise then. Without expressing a direct condemnation of the February revolution, the uprising against the Anointed One, the Russian people continue to participate in sin, especially when they defend the fruits of the revolution.".
In these words of a foreign hierarch, we again see a call to the Soviet people to reconsider their attitude towards the Revolution as a rebellion against the state system and the emperor, as the head of this state. Repentance is here. John already understands this as a reassessment of values ​​and condemnation of what happened.

Somewhat later, Archbishop of the Russian Church Abroad Averky (Taushev) speaks not about the assassination of the Tsar itself, but about the atmosphere of approval of the October Revolution and the overthrow of the Tsar that reigned in Russia: “It is little consolation for us that the direct murder of the Royal Family was not committed by Russian hands - by the hands of non-Orthodox and non-Russian people. Although this is true, the entire Russian people are guilty of this terrible, unparalleled atrocity, since they did not resist, did not prevent it, but behaved in such a way that this atrocity was an expression of the mood that by this time had matured in the minds and hearts of the undoubted majority of the unfortunate lost Russian people... The entire Russian people bears the guilt for this grave sin committed on Russian soil.”.
As in the quoted words of St. Tikhon and Bishop John (Maksimovich) here, Bishop Averky speaks not so much about the fact of regicide, but about the idea of ​​​​approval of this sin that has reigned in the minds of the citizens of the USSR, and, therefore, complicity in it.

In 1993, the hierarchy of the Russian Church again turned to the topic of repentance for the murder of the royal family. On July 18, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a Message dedicated to the 75th anniversary of this heinous crime, in which the words of St. Tikhon the Confessor and it is noted that “The sin of regicide, which occurred with the indifference of Russian citizens, has not been repented by our people. Being a crime of both Divine and human law, this sin lies the heaviest burden on the soul of the people, on their moral self-awareness. And today we, on behalf of the entire Church, on behalf of all her children - deceased and living - bring repentance before God and people for this sin. Forgive us, Lord! We call to repentance all our people, all their children, regardless of their political views and views on history, regardless of their ethnic origin, religious affiliation, regardless of their attitude to the idea of ​​​​the monarchy and to the personality of the last Russian Emperor.".
Addressing the children of the Russian Orthodox Church in this Message, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, as Its Primate, truly expressed repentance for what happened on behalf of the entire Russian Church and condemned this sin. There is no doubt that our First Hierarch expressed the repentance of those church people who were in one way or another (even with sympathy) involved in this crime, so that even the shadow of this atrocity would not fall on the members of the Holy Church.

Mention here " deceased and living"is also not accidental. Speaking on behalf of the entire Church, His Holiness the Patriarch offered repentance for sin on behalf of those members of the Church who had already departed to the heavenly world and could not publicly repent of this crime. Here it is also appropriate to recall how, in the Rite of Church Burial, the priest, on behalf of the deceased, addresses the relatives and asks for their prayers: “brothers and friends, relatives and acquaintances, weep for me”. However, this does not mean that the clergyman repents INSTEAD of the deceased. The church canons indicate that the pastor should treat a repentant sinner as if they were his own sins. It is precisely this kind of pastoral care that His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II shows us, encouraging unrepentant sinners to bring personal repentance.

Thus, for all residents of Russia, repentance for the sin of regicide should manifest itself in a deep understanding of the fate of our Motherland, in a reassessment of those tragic trends in the history of Russia that led to the possibility of overthrowing the legitimate head of the Russian state, the subsequent murder of the royal family and other godless deeds. The term “repentance” from Greek means “change of mind,” and in these words of the Hierarchy we see precisely this meaning.

In 2000, a significant event took place: at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Royal Family was canonized as holy passion-bearers. After the repentant words of Patriarch Alexy II, this event became the final sign of the Church’s rejection of the crime against the royal family that took place in 1918. It became the only form of “conciliar repentance” in allowing the murder of the Sovereign and the royal family, the necessity of which was spoken by many hierarchs our Church.

Nevertheless, the question of the form of repentance for the murder of the king anointed by God continued to be discussed in the church environment. A proposal arose to hold a “whole-church conciliar rite of repentance,” just as the holy patriarchs Job and Hermogen in 1607 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin led a “nationwide repentance” for the sins of apostasy, perjury and connivance in regicide, which ended with the reading of a prayer of permission. Rumors began to spread that such a new “Rite of Repentance” had the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch. At the same time, the Patriarch’s words about the need for nationwide repentance were taken literally as a call for the establishment of a special Rite, different from the Rite of the Sacrament of Confession set out in the Trebnik.

An appeal to the history of the Russian Church shows that the Rite of Repentance, which was performed in 1607 by the holy Patriarchs Job and Hermogenes, firstly, was not literally nationwide, and secondly, the patriarchs did not free the entire Russian people from the burden of sins, as claim the zealots of the new Rite of cathedral repentance (when this rite of repentance was performed in the Assumption Cathedral, Moscow was worried and shouted out the name of the second Pretender).

At that time, repentance for betrayal of the tsar was marked primarily by the canonization of Tsarevich Dimitri, whose holy relics were opened for veneration in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin. Before St. with the relics of the prince’s mother (nun Martha) and brought “nationwide repentance” (i.e., public before all the people), calling herself guilty before the king, the council, all the people, and most of all before her son, for recognizing the Pretender.

Later, representatives of the laity handed over to the patriarchs. Job's repentant petition, in which they listed a number of their betrayals and perjuries and asked that the patriarchs forgive them for their betrayal of the king. In response, the authorization letter from the patriarch was read. Job, who himself was a participant in the events of the time of Tsar Boris. It contains patr. Job claimed that just as before he conjured the people to be faithful to Tsar Boris, now he absolves the people from these oaths and himself asks the people for forgiveness for them.

Understanding this historical event shows that real oathbreakers and traitors brought repentance to the Tsar, and they brought repentance to precisely the Patriarch through whom they took the oath to the Tsar, and who imposed an oath for treason against Tsars Boris and Theodore.

As an argument about the possibility of bringing repentance for the dead, adherents of conciliar repentance refer to requests from representatives of the laity that Patr. Job forgave and resolved these crimes not only for those living in Moscow, but also for the residents of all of Russia, and for those who have already died.

In response to such arguments, it should be noted that neither the bishop nor the priest ever absolves the sins of either living or deceased Orthodox Christians if they have not brought to God a feasible repentance for the sins they have committed. Otherwise, the Sacrament of Repentance is profaned, when the forgiveness of those sins that a person does not repent of or even did not commit is announced. When, during the Rite of Burial, the priest reads the Prayer of Permission, he asks God for forgiveness of those sins of the deceased for which he repented, but did not yet have time to bear the worthy fruits of repentance.

Therefore, the fact of resolving the sins of the participants in the Troubles in 1607 is not a reason for us to organize a special rite of repentance for treason against the king and the murder of the royal family. Such actions rather lead a person away from real repentance, distract him from the awareness of those sins that really separate him from God. In addition, in statements about the guilt of all of Russia and even church people in the regicide, an attempt is visible to shift the blame of the real culprits of the regicide onto the Church and those who have nothing to do with it.

Considering the need for Russians to repent of the sin of regicide, it is impossible not to recall the words of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II that “ The beginning of Russian history was marked by the murder of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb, and is it not in this sin that the people’s troubles that followed it are rooted?”. But why are people now calling to repent specifically for the murder of the royal family? Why is there no mention of the passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, or the persecution of St. Tikhon the Confessor and the great host of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia? After all, we remember that hundreds of thousands of clergy and the majority of bishops suffered during these difficult times. Why don’t supporters of “national repentance” call for repentance for their murder?
The meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', held on April 20, 2005, was devoted to understanding the phenomenon of “conciliar repentance”:
“The Holy Synod had a judgment on the initiatives coming from certain groups of Orthodox laity to hold a “repentant procession of the cross” from various dioceses to Moscow on the anniversary of the murder of the holy passion-bearers Emperor Nicholas Alexandrovich, members of his family and those who suffered with them...
In the Sacrament of Repentance, the one who confesses his sins receives forgiveness from the priest and is absolved from his sins by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This Sacrament reconciles and reunites a person with the Church, restores him to a life of grace in Christ and eliminates the mediastinum between God and man that arises due to sinful acts committed by a specific person. The Holy Synod reminds that in the Church there are very specific forms of celebrating the Sacrament of Repentance, rooted in Holy Tradition and sanctified by centuries-old tradition. Deviation from these forms seems unjustified and unnecessary. The history of the Church knows examples of nationwide prayerful and repentant feats, raised for the sake of moral cleansing of the people in times of unrest and disorder. In particular, the church leadership has repeatedly called for comprehension and moral assessment of sinful acts committed in the past century, when, according to the words of St. Tikhon, “sin darkened the people’s minds... kindled the flames of passions, enmity and malice everywhere,” which became the reason for the persecution of Church, desecration of shrines, fratricide, including the murder of the holy passion-bearer Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and his family.
The Patriarch and the Holy Synod twice, in connection with the 75th and 80th anniversary of the painful death of the royal family, called for nationwide repentance of this sin. We believe that many children of our Church have brought such repentance to God, which was expressed in the desire to expel from their lives sinful darkness and indifference to the fate of the Church and the Fatherland, which once made possible the persecution of the Church, the plunge of the country into the abyss of fratricidal hatred and bloodshed.
The true fruit of the repentance was the ongoing return of the people to the paths of faith, piety and life in Christ, and its visible evidence was the canonization of the royal family and the new martyrs and confessors by the Russian Orthodox Church at the Jubilee Council of Bishops in 2000.
A repentant understanding of the historical tragedy that befell our people should not be accompanied by statements about the constant and unique acceptability of this or that political system for Orthodox Christians. The Holy Synod recalls that the teaching of the Church on state structure was clearly expressed in the “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church.”
Recognizing the right of clergy to individually express private opinions on various issues, the Holy Synod notes with regret that recently some pastors and, unfortunately, in rare cases even bishops, allowed themselves to participate in the collective signing of texts that diverge in content from the Council’s definitions. This actually leads to the creation of groups that prefer the organized expression of one-sided opinions not shared by the entire Church to conciliar reasoning, which occurs in canonically established forms. The Holy Synod determines that such actions contradict the canonical conciliar system of the Church and points out their inadmissibility for clergy.”
The conclusion of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church shows that quoting the words of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II about the need for “nationwide repentance” as a blessing for the creation of a new Rite of nationwide repentance is unlawful and is at odds with the opinion of the Hierarchy of the Russian Church. “Consciously or unconsciously, the preachers of these pseudo-Orthodox ideas are objectively working to discredit Orthodoxy in the eyes of Russian society, to weaken and split the Church.”

In the same year, 2005, in addition to the Patriarch and members of the Synod, other bishops of the Russian and Ukrainian Church expressed their views on the newly-minted Rite of Worldwide Repentance for the Tsar. According to Metropolitan Sergius of Voronezh and Borisoglebsk “The rite of conciliar national repentance for the sin of regicide was artificially imposed on the Church by people who seek to achieve its schism. Instead of showing the beauty of Orthodoxy and instilling a moral way of life in people, they are beginning to be confused.”.
Archbishop Augustine of Lvov and Galicia, in his report at the International Theological Conference “Eschatological Teaching of the Church,” expressed the opinion that “rites of national repentance” are invented by unchurched people in contrast to the rite of the sacrament of personal repentance (recorded in the Trebnik)» .

Thus, in 2005, the hierarchy of the Russian Church unequivocally spoke out regarding the unauthorized “Rite of Repentance for the Tsar.” However, the “zealots of repentance,” unfortunately, did not heed the voice of the Church, and continue to spread their appeals throughout all dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. These leaflets contain a photograph of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, as well as his statements regarding the need for repentance of the entire Russian people, which are taken out of the context of his statements and do not at all relate to the initiative to hold repentant processions to the Tsar’s monument.
This shows that the compilers of such leaflets are deliberately leading into temptation the faithful children of the Russian Church, slyly playing on their trust in the words of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church.

Such actions of the schismatic teachers led to the need to again voice the opinion of the Hierarchy on this problem.
On December 26, 2007, at the diocesan meeting of the clergy of the Kyiv diocese, the “rite of national repentance” was rejected by the Primate of the Ukrainian Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), calling on priests “delicately brush aside” the idea of ​​“national repentance” by calling her “more blasphemy than repentance”. “Why should we repent of killing the emperor if we did not kill him?”- Vladyka Vladimir asked rhetorically.
The position of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II regarding this issue was announced on December 24, 2007 at the Diocesan Assembly of Moscow. The Patriarch condemned the so-called “The rite of national repentance”, which takes place in the village. Taininskoe, and noted that this “rite” cannot be considered a genuine church matter, because it has a pronounced propaganda character. The clergy taking part in these actions does so either in spite of or without the blessing of the clergy. In addition, the text of the rite itself does not correspond to the resolutions of the Holy Synod, because it calls for the abandonment of TIN, insurance policy and similar identification documents.
“We cannot agree with the text of the Mytishchi rank, - said His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, - because A special place in it is occupied by the call to repent “for the insufficiency” of glorifying the new martyrs and the Royal Family.” According to His Holiness, “there is only one redemptive feat - our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is impossible to compare the execution of the emperor and his family with the atoning sacrifice of the Savior”.
Also, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy noted the impossibility of comparing this “rite” with the repentance of 1607 - after all, this was the repentance of the people for personal sins.
“I declare with full responsibility that this “act of repentance” is unacceptable and harmful to the soul,” emphasized His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II. “The participation of clergy and laity in ranks similar to Tainin’s is unacceptable.”, - emphasized the Primate of the Russian Church.

I've heard this question for a long time, but I never understood it, to be honest. Do I need to list the “historical sins” of the Russian people in confession? Or only the sins of my immediate ancestors? Or his own complicity in the acts of the godless government - that he joined the Komsomol and took exams in history and mathematics at the university? And all these collective “rites of repentance for the sin of regicide” seemed to me something artificial and unviable.

And now I think I’m starting to understand what’s going on here.

But first, what is repentance? For some, this is beating the chest of “the worst of them all,” for others, an endless listing of unsightly details, for others, giving up bad habits.

And everyone has probably heard what this word literally means in biblical languages: Greek metanoia– “rethinking”, Hebrew teshuva- “return”.

That's right, rethinking, re-evaluating what happened, and returning to the point where you went the wrong way. That is, a conscious change in one’s behavior. This is the very essence, and the rest, including confession, are rather external forms and manifestations. In general, this is the ABC for a Christian.

Why am I talking about this again? Two seemingly completely different events brought me to new thoughts. The first is a survey of Muscovites about. There is no need to argue about whether our streets, neighborhoods and stations should be named after murderers. They shouldn't, but they do.

Another thing is surprising: why not simply rename this station, as was done a little over a year ago with “Ulitsa Podbelsky” (another revolutionary), now “Rokossovsky Boulevard”? I'm not even talking about how in the late 80s the names of many stations with communist names were changed. And if “you have to start somewhere,” then why not start with the inspirer and organizer of the Red Terror, V.I. Lenin?

And I think I have the answer to this question. It turns out whether to leave the name of the killer on the map of Moscow is “a debatable issue.” And discussion is permissible only on a secondary name. Well, you can also wonder whether Prince Kropotkin was worthy of having a station named after him adjacent to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, or how we should feel about 1905 with its barricades (as many as two stations on the purple line).

But in this way we diligently avoid the question of the entire Soviet legacy. Yes, we admit, there were disgusting figures like Voikov, or, say, Beria, but they were convicted, we got rid of them. As for the rest, everything is very ambiguous; we recognize both great achievements and certain excesses...

Try saying this in confession, talking about your own sin: not everything is so simple, there have been significant achievements. But here everything is quite simple: millions of people were killed, many of them were glorified by us as new martyrs. Their murder remained as if unnoticed - in Moscow there are so far no streets that bear their names, no monuments in their honor. And as soon as you call this murder a murder, a chorus of voices will follow: not everything is so simple, the losses are exaggerated.

What does Voikov have to do with it? Yes, despite the fact that all this fuss around renaming the station is intended to show that there is no agreement in society about the crimes of the Bolsheviks, which means it is better not to touch anything. And that these crimes themselves were, in fact, “the excesses of the perpetrator”: well, Voikov, Yurovsky and a couple of other people killed the royal family, so they are scoundrels, and we have nothing to do with it. But we are the heirs of great victories, the red flag over the Reichstag, Gagarin in space - this is all ours forever. But the Cheka and the Gulag are not.

It doesn't happen that way. You can refuse an inheritance, you can accept it - but then you accept all the costs, all the encumbrances, all the debts of the deceased. In this case, it is the debt of memory, the burden of a terrible past and the need to comprehend it. Until this happens, we as a society have no immunity from the repetition of this abomination.

Rethinking past events and changing behavior, remember?

The second thing that made me think about national repentance is. He is no longer talking about communists - about democrats who are in opposition to the government today. He notes that practically none of them rethought in the public space their experience of working for the same government in the early 2000s. That is, yesterday there were “for”, today “against”, and it all somehow came naturally, without trying to analyze past mistakes and misconceptions.

Moreover, the same applies to the experience of the nineties. They are usually painted with either black or white paint. It is only very rarely possible to hear from those who consider them damned - but where did the current stability and spirituality come from, if not from there? And from those who call them blessed - where did this blessing evaporate, who made what mistakes and what?

We as a people, as a society, are like children who suddenly start playing pirates or astronauts and just as suddenly quit the game, so that at dinner there is nothing left of either a black-flag frigate or an interplanetary cruiser. And tomorrow there will be a new game, and the day after tomorrow another one, and no one will remember what they played there the day before yesterday.

It's definitely time for us to grow up. This means, first of all, taking responsibility. Can it be collective? Don't think. But she can be in solidarity.

Collective responsibility is when one soldier is caught AWOL, and the entire company’s dismissals are cancelled. It's simple, we can do it. Solidarity is when we think and decide together what and when went wrong for us and what can be changed. Yes, at the same time we often argue, we do not agree on assessments - this, of course, is difficult and sometimes unpleasant.

Repentance is needed not for show, not to condemn individual culprits (of course, not ourselves), but for the sake of recognizing a simple thing: everything that happened and is happening to our country is not the result of the actions of mysterious Jewish Freemasons or individual scoundrels, but a natural consequence of the actions of our own people, including ourselves. And now it is we who determine what our grandchildren will inherit and what word they will use to remember us. We, not the world behind the scenes, are not internal enemies or individual irresponsible comrades.

Such repentance is not so much an event as a long and very difficult process of awareness and change.

In order not to be unfounded, I want to give just one personal example. This year, for the first time in all these years, I participated in “” - I read at the Solovetsky Stone the names of two citizens who were executed and completely unknown to me. To them I added the name of brigade commissar Alexander Mikhailovich Kruglov-Landa, the husband of my great-aunt, who was shot in October 1938 and rehabilitated in 1956. I knew for a long time that he lived in the world and was killed - but only this year did I give myself the trouble to figure out who he really was, how and when he died.

It turned out to be very easy, the information is available on the Internet. Before his arrest, Kruglov-Landa acted as head of the Political Directorate of the Red Army, and in general his biography is an exemplary biography of a Bolshevik commissar. Probably, that’s precisely why I was in no hurry to find out about her, because that’s what I imagined... I liked the biography of my own grandfather much more - a born nobleman, a professional military man, a veteran order bearer.

And yet, Kruglov-Landa was killed on false charges, he had no descendants left, keeping his memory is my duty, which I forgot about. He established this system in our country, he certainly contributed to the Great Terror in one way or another, and he ultimately fell victim to it. Or I could have fought like my own grandfather and met the victorious spring in Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, with high ranks and military awards.

In those same thirties, photographs of nobles and officers were erased from family albums; today, the names of NKVD employees and commissars are carefully erased from family memory. But there were millions of them, they left many descendants. Where are they all? Or, as Sergei Dovlatov asked: “We endlessly scold Comrade Stalin, and, of course, for good reason. And yet I want to ask: who wrote four million denunciations?” Or, returning to those very nineties - how did it happen that after the victory over communism we voluntarily gave up the battlefield to the marauders?

Do I have the right to remember only that part of my personal or family history, the history of my people, that looks beautiful and promises honors and benefits? Do I have the right not to draw conclusions for the future? Rhetorical questions, of course. But without a real answer to them, without a genuine rethinking and return to the right path, we will continue to circle in the dark from generation to generation, repeating previous mistakes, yearning for yesterday’s mirages.

NATIONAL REPENTANCE OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE IN THE SIN OF REGISTRY

We call all our people, all their children, to repentance.
His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II

If there is no repentance among the Russians
people - the end of the world is near!
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

The main cause of our troubles lies in ourselves, because the Russian people still have not yet repented of the destruction of Orthodox Russia committed by their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. Repentance is required of us; without it, nothing good awaits us. And this is our main problem - unrepentance. If we overcome it, then with God’s help no enemies will be afraid of our people, our Fatherland.
Metropolitan John (Snychev)

Only complete national repentance before God for the flagrant sins of our fathers and grandfathers and a return to a full-blooded life according to the faith and ideals of Holy Rus' will return to Russia the gracious protection of the Most Holy Theotokos and the mercy of the Creator.
V. M. Klykov

1. Unknown Russia

Two years after the revolution, in April 1919, the writer Ivan Bunin will prophetically say: “Our children and grandchildren will not be able to even imagine the Russia in which we once (that is, yesterday) lived, which we did not appreciate, didn’t understand - all this power, complexity, wealth, happiness.” What kind of Russia was this, which the sovereign leader of the Russian state, Emperor Alexander III, lovingly nicknamed by the people “The Peacemaker,” bequeathed to his crowned son on his deathbed?
Anticipating the approach of the coming upheavals, the Tsar will then tell Nicholas II, a lot that would be worth listening to today for everyone who cares about the Russian fate: “You have to take the heavy burden of state power from my shoulders and carry it to the grave just as I carried it and as our ancestors carried. I hand over to you the kingdom that God has given me...I was only interested in the good of my people and the greatness of Russia. I sought to give internal and external peace so that the state could develop freely and calmly, grow stronger, grow richer and prosper normally. Autocracy created the historical individuality of Russia.The autocracy collapses, God forbid, then Russia will collapse with it. The fall of the primordial Russian government will usher in an endless era of unrest and bloody civil strife.
I bequeath to you to love everything that serves the good, honor and dignity of Russia... You are responsible for the fate of your subjects before the throne of the Almighty. Be strong and courageous. In foreign policy, maintain an independent position. Avoid wars. In domestic politics, first of all, patronize the Church. She saved Russia more than once in times of trouble.Strengthen the family, because it is the basis of any state...
Know that Russia has no friends. Russia has only two true allies. This is her army and her navy."

2. “There is treason and cowardice and deception all around!”

1917... Taking advantage of the war imposed on Russia and the difficulties associated with it, Russia's internal enemies carry out a coup d'etat. On the night of March 2, captured by his own generals on a train near Pskov, Emperor Nicholas II wrote in his diary: “There is treason and cowardice and deception all around.”
March 3, 1917... The Emperor, after forcibly abdicating the Throne, returns not to Tsarskoye Selo to his Family, but to Mogilev. He goes to headquarters to say goodbye to his beloved army. “The Emperor is calm all the time. Only God knows what this peace of mind is costing him. Only on March 3rd, brought back to headquarters, did he show excitement. Restraining himself, even trying to be cheerful, he left the train, cheerfully greeting the grand dukes and generals. We saw how he shuddered when he saw the line of staff officers. The Emperor goes around everyone, offering his hand. But this is the end of this line. Large tears streamed down his face, and covering his face with his hand, he quickly entered the carriage. Farewell to headquarters and army. The Emperor apparently restrains his excitement. Some officers have tears in their eyes. The last minute has arrived. Somewhere here the shadows of Susanin, Bulba, Minin, Hermogen, Kutuzov, Suvorov and thousands of former faithful should appear. Here are the guards, the military nobility, and the people. Officers' tears are not strength. There are thousands of armed people here. And not one hand grabbed the hilt, not a single cry of “we will not allow”, not a single sword was drawn, no one rushed forward, and there was no one in the army: not a single unit, regiment, corps that would rush at that hour, headlong, to the rescue of the Tsar, Russia. There was dead silence" (A. Pavlov. His Majesty Sovereign Nicholas II. Paris. 1927).
They are betrayed by “two faithful allies - the army and the navy”, the stronghold of autocracy - the Church - is betrayed, the intelligentsia, the nobility are betrayed, the people closest to them are betraying... Think, there is a war going on and what serious can be done for Russia when “your orders are not carried out, when you are they giving false information, spreading slander, conducting a great policy of intrigue, killing people loyal to you, and setting up Judas?” And it simply could not have been any other way, given the reigning lack of faith, the spiritual and moral crisis in which Russia was immersed. “Faith in the word of God, the word of truth, disappeared and was replaced by faith in human reason, the press for the most part was lied to - for it, nothing sacred and honorable became... there was no more obedience of children to parents, students to teachers... Marriages are desecrated, family life is decaying, solid There is no politics, everyone is politicking... everyone wants autonomy. The intelligentsia has lost their love for the Motherland, and they are ready to sell it to foreigners, just as Judas sold Christ to the evil scribes and Pharisees” (Holy Right John of Kronstadt).
Sovereign Nicholas II, faithful to Christ, Russia and the duty of the Tsar’s service, had only one path left - the path to Golgotha.
July 17, 1918 is the day of the Russian tragedy. In Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the Ipatiev House, the Royal Family and its faithful Servants were ritually destroyed. “The fate of the Tsar is the fate of Russia. If there is no Tsar, there will be no Russia,” warned Elder Anatoly of Optina. The Russian people, the custodians of the Orthodox faith, have gravely sinned by rejecting God in the person of His Anointed One - the Orthodox Monarch, by despising the sacred oath given in 1613 to the Romanov family - the oath “to serve faithfully and unhypocritically, not sparing one’s belly to the last drop of blood.”

3. “We call all our people to repentance”

In 2000, the Royal Family was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the Holy Passion-Bearers. But glorification for us is not repentance, because recognition of the holiness of the Royal Family does not free us from sin, there is no purification, change of consciousness, or rebirth of man. Without concrete repentance to God for our sins, guilt remains. His Holiness Patriarch of All Rus' Alexy II, on the days of remembrance of the Royal Martyrs, addressing the people, repeatedly spoke about the need for national repentance: “The sin of regicide, which occurred with the indifference of the citizens of Russia, has not been repented by our people. Being a crime of both Divine and human law, this sin lies with the heaviest burden both on the soul of the people and on their moral self-awareness... Repentance for it (regicide) should become a sign of the unity of our people, which is achieved through not indifferent agreement, but thoughtful comprehension what happened to the country and people... We call all our people to repentance.”
The heart of the Russian people responded to the call of the First Supreme Shepherd and for the first time in many years of atheism and fight against God, on October 1, 2004, the Rite of National Repentance was held in Moscow. Subsequently, the location of the event was the village of Taininskoye near Moscow near the city of Mytishchi. Today, in this place, the place of unity of the Russian people, the once disunited and divided Great Russian Empire gathers. Here, over the past two years, about two hundred thousand Orthodox Christians from different regions of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, near and far abroad have brought repentance for themselves personally, for their ancestors.

4. Rite of National Repentance

The rite of National Repentance of the Russian people was compiled on the basis of the rite of repentance of 1607, “following the example of how it took place in the 17th century after the end of the era of troubled times.”
Orthodox pilgrims who have come to repentance with banners, icons and singing prayers, led by the clergy, go in a procession to the monument to Emperor Nicholas II. At the Crucifixion and icons of the Lord, the Mother of God, and saints, the Orthodox priesthood serves a Prayer Service to the Lord and the Mother of God for the salvation of the Russian Land, compiled by Saint-Confessor Athanasius (Sakharov) in August 1941. At the end of the prayer service there is a short litany with the commemoration of the devotees of piety of the Russian Land and our ancestors and all Orthodox Christians who have passed on to another world. Then the priest, having read the appropriate initial prayers, on behalf of the entire people reads out publicly the list of sins committed by the Russian people over the past centuries. “Forgive us, Merciful Lord!” - the priest says after each listed sin. “Forgive us, Merciful Lord!” - the people echo the pastor’s words. All those praying bow their knees, “bringing repentance for the entire Russian people and our relatives who died in great and grave sinsapostasy, perjury and king's deathevils hitherto unrepentant by us and weighing on us and our people.” At the end of the Penitential Rite, the priest reads a prayer of permission.

Repentance:
Repentancetranslated from Greek means “to come to one’s senses.” “This is one of the seven Christian sacraments established by Jesus Christ. A Christian, sincerely and heartily repenting of his sins and intending to correct his life, with faith in Christ and with hope in His mercies, verbally sets out his sins before the priest, who also orally absolves him of his sins” (Complete Orthodox Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary ).
“People do not learn humility, and for their pride they cannot accept the grace of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the whole world suffers. And if people knew the Lord, how merciful, humble and meek He is, then in one hour the face of the whole world would change, and everyone would have great joy and love.
The Merciful Lord gave us repentance,and with repentance I will fix everythinglies. By repentance we receive forgiveness of sins; for repentance comes the grace of the Holy Spirit, and this is how we know God.
If anyone has lost peace and is suffering, then let him repent, and the Lord will give him His peace.
If any nation or state suffers, then everyone must repent, and then everything will be corrected by God.”(St. Silouan of Athos).
Once the Athonite elder Paisios (Eznepidis) was asked when Cyprus would be liberated from the occupiers, he replied: “Cyprus will be liberated then,when will the Cypriots repent?. Arrange in Cyprusspiritual military basesto disperse the military bases of the Turks, British and Americans." That is, the Elder considered the Cyprus problem to be a spiritual problem, not a political one, and its solution was in the repentance of the people and in prayer.

Sin of apostasy:
“The fool says in his heart: there is no God” (Psalm). And if there is no God, then, according to Ivan Karamazov, everything is permitted. As Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky noted: “Conscience without God is horror, it can go astray to the point of immorality.”
“...Oh God! Save the Russian people, the Orthodox Church in Russia - they are perishing! - Saint John of Kronstadt, a contemporary of Emperor Nicholas II, cried with sorrow. “Everywhere there is depravity, everywhere unbelief, blasphemy, anarchy!” (Bishop Alexander Semenov-Tyan-Shansky. Father John of Kronstadt. pp. 256-257)
Moral decline led to the fact that we retreated from God, moved away from the Faith and from the Church, and ultimately, we betrayed the Tsar and betrayed the centuries-old work of our glorious ancestors in creating the great Russian Power. That is why the revolution of 1917 took place, and the regicide, and the fratricidal massacres that followed all this, mass repressions, wars - all this is a consequence of centuries of fighting against God, apostasy, our moral uncleanliness and lukewarmness.
“National repentance,” according to Metropolitan John (Snychev), “should consist in a deep awareness of responsibility not only for one’s own actions, but also for the actions of one’s ancestors... one must deeply realize that a very deep sin has been committed in the person of one’s own ancestors. The sin is not only, say, killing the Tsar, but alsothe most important thing is the revolt against the Orthodox Church. Because with by the murder of the Monarch, the Orthodox faith was also killed. This was witnessed in real actions, for example: the destruction of churches, the desecration of shrines, the opening of holy relics, the burning of icons, the exile of bishops, priests and ordinary people. This is necessary because the state did it...”

Sin of perjury:
The vow that our pious ancestors made (meaning the oath taken by the participants of the Zemstvo-Local Council for eternal allegiance to the royal family of the Romanovs on February 21, 1613) immediately and forever entered the gene pool of the entire people. What the ancestors sowed, their descendants reaped. We still have not yet realized the evil of 1917, have not repented of it, of the apostasy from God, of the betrayal and murder of the Royal Family, of the violation of the oath of 1613. After all, the curse weighs heavily on the people, and it will pass on to our descendants from generation to generation until we repent and change.

Sin of regicide:
“Some say that our people are guilty only ofapostasy. But the fact is that due to the silence of our people, our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, the murder of God’s Anointed was allowed to happen. So this is already participation in murder. People must understand with their minds and hearts that they need to repent deeply. And we must repent, no matter how we sinned. Why? Yes, because our grandfathers and great-grandfathers are already in the other world, there is no repentance there. Repentance is here, and there is already reward there. Therefore, out of love for them, for our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, our ancestors, we take this sin upon ourselves and repent of it. If they do not understand and realize this, then it will be impossible to cleanse either our ancestors or ourselves from sinful filth, because the blood of our ancestors flows in our veins and the guilt lies with us accordingly.”

From the instructions on prayer for the dead of the Athonite elder Paisios (Eznepidis):

“- Geronda, can the condemned dead pray?
“They come to their senses and ask for help, but they can no longer help themselves. Those who are in hell would like only one thing from Christ: that He would give them five minutes of earthly life to repent. We, living on earth, have a reserve of time for repentance, while the unfortunate deceased can no longer improve their situation themselves, but expect help from us . Therefore, we are obliged to help them with our prayer.”
These grave unrepentant sins of apostasy, perjury and regicidehave launched a mechanism for the destruction of the Russian Orthodox people at the genetic level, which can only be stopped by repentance, similar to what our ancestors last conciliarly offered four centuries ago in the Assumption Church of the Moscow Kremlin. It was a difficult, troubled time, but the great, resurrecting Grace of God then appeared to Russia.
Having attended the Rite of Repentance for the first time, you feel how the people’s soul has suffered and yearns for a tearful, conciliar “one heart and one mouth” national repentance. Believers from all over Mother Russia bring with them the most revered ancestral icons. And the Lord shows miracles: images stream myrrh and smell fragrant, the sun plays like on Easter, healings occur. Thus, those present at the Rite of Repentance on the day of the Murder of the Royal Family on July 17, 2006 observed a miraculous phenomenon: a rainbow crown formed in the sky above the head of the Sovereign, Emperor Nicholas II. A similar phenomenon was repeated during the next Rite of Repentance on September 16, 2006, on the eve of the glorification of St. Joasaph of Belgorod, one of the last saints, whose glorification took place thanks to the autocratic will demonstrated by the Martyr-Tsar. (The Emperor, not agreeing with the opinion of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod to postpone the celebrations of glorification, himself appointed a date for it. (Royal collection. Compiled by S.V. Fomin)).
On the same day, the Orthodox people learned about another miracle and were once again convinced of the truth of the Rite being carried out. Father deacon from the Vladimir diocese publicly testified how, having read the book “The Rite of National Repentance of the Russian People,” and not receiving the appropriate blessing to travel to Taininskoye, he prayerfully turned to the Lord for admonition. A miracle happened: the book streamed myrrh (the cover of the book was thoroughly saturated with the world) for a month in front of the entire amazed family and acquaintances of the father. The decision was made right and unequivocally: go!
On October 1, 2006, believers witnessed a miracle revealed by the icon of the Savior with the Crown of Thorns. This image, brought by one of the women, bled during the Rite of Repentance in front of numerous pilgrims (from under the crown of thorns living blood flowed in two streams down the face of Christ). You can see this in the documentary film by G. Tsareva “Spiritual War”. The owner of this wonderful icon of the Savior, with tears of joy and reverence, raising it high above her head, showed it to all the amazed pilgrims. This same miraculous phenomenon was repeated at the next Rite of Repentance on October 17. Many, seeing this for the first time, understood that the Rite of National Repentance was pleasing to God.
The great Russian patriotic sculptor, author of the monument to Emperor Nicholas II, V.M. Klykov, in his spiritual testament, answered the question:What does a Russian person need to survive in the current situation?
- First of all, realize your sinfulness. That is why nationwide, conciliar repentance is still important... I sometimes think how right Seraphim of Sarov was when he said that the time would come when ordinary believers would save Orthodoxy in Russia. And here it is, that time is coming.

5. Who and why opposes the Rite of National Repentance.

We need to remember the irreconcilable hostility on the part of those forces that destroyed the Tsarist power in Russia and betrayed the Sovereign and his Family to desecration and cruel death. Their descendants are still afraid of the possibility of restoring the sacred Orthodox monarchy, the revival of a strong Orthodox state - Holy Rus'. Who, if not they, understands perfectly well that without repentance the Lord will not be able to pour out Divine grace to the Russian people in full, without repentance we will not be freed from the yoke of Satan and will not revive Russia.
As soon as the social-church movement for Nationwide repentance began to gain strength in Taininsky, they were not slow to appearthese new-found revolutionaries- ideological descendants of Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov and Dzerzhinsky, citizens of two kingdoms - the kingdom of the Antichrist and Russia, which captivated our people 90 years ago. In every possible way preventing conciliar repentance, they slyly “enlighten” the people, talking about the Church schism, the uncanonical nature of the Rite of National Repentance, the non-involvement of the Russian people in the sin of regicide and other unsubstantiated accusations.
Bishop Ippolit, Bishop of Tulchin and Bratslav, believes that such “zealous opponents” of the National Repentance in Taininsky are responsible before God for their insane unfounded accusations (interview with Bishop Ippolit (Khilko) in G. Tsareva’s documentary “Spiritual War”, 2006 .).
From the spiritual testament of V.M. Klykov: “I am amazed by the lukewarmness and indifference. In 1998, the Patriarch called the people to repentance. For better or worse, the people went, albeit clumsily, spontaneously, but they went. And now, on the contrary, they send provocateurs to dissuade people from the rite of repentance. How does it work? - There is only one answer: as they are ordered, so they do. What kind of answer is this? Where is the conscience? Isn't there something we should repent of? Everyone must undergo a nationwide conciliar repentance, blessed, first of all, by the Patriarch, according to all the canons, similar to the rite of repentance that was performed in 1607 by the holy Patriarchs Job and Hermogenes in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, where the Russian people were released from the burden of sins. I ask many priests: “What are you afraid of?” They answer that society can split, become divided. Why might it split?Call the people to repentance, and everyone will unite in repentance"(The Spirit of a Christian" No. 11, June 1, 2006)..

According to St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, “The mercy of the Lord can be revealed if everything goes according to the scheme of events:sin - captivity - repentance - freedie. Judging by what is happening now, another option may await us:sin - captivity - insufficient repentance - God's punishment - death of the majority and salvation of the “small flock”"" ("Russia before the Second Coming". M. 2003, p. 340).
Brothers and Sisters! Compatriots! Russian people! Russia is on the brink of destruction!Ruined, dismembered, brought to her knees by the world behind the scenes, with the last of her strength she is still holding on over the abyss, still breathing and waiting for our help, our repentance.
Let us remember the lessons of the history of our Fatherland and try to find within ourselves today the strength and courage to turn to God with prayer and repentance, as our glorious ancestors prayed and repented during the invasions of Tamerlane, Napoleon, the fierce times of unrest and the fascist yoke! “There will be no excuse or forgiveness for us if we do not take advantage of the opportunity provided. This will mean that we have betrayed dozens of generations of our own ancestors, despised their centuries-old great work to create a State, to bring to life the highest ideals of Orthodoxy... If we falter today, renounce and retreat, the blood of Russian warriors, shed in battles for Rus' from the time of Vladimir the Baptist until this day, will cry out to the Lord for vengeance on us - cowardly and self-lovers of little faith! (Metropolitan John (Snychev).

People - the end of the world is near"

St. pr. John of Kronstadt

ORDER OF NATIONAL REPENTANCE OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE

(SUPPLEMENTED)

“A thunderstorm will pass over the Russian land,

The Lord will forgive the sins of the Russian people.

And the Holy Cross with Divine beauty

It will shine brightly over the temple of God again.”

St. Seraphim Vyritsky, 1949

“The sin of regicide, which occurred with the indifference of Russian citizens, is unrepentant by our people. Being a crime of both Divine and human law, this sin lies the heaviest burden on the soul of the people, on their moral self-awareness...” From the message of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II and the Holy Synod on the 75th anniversary of the murder of the Royal Family.

“The salvation of Russia is through repentance”

S.A. Nilus, a famous Russian spiritual writer of the early 20th century, told his loved ones after the revolution the well-known prophecies of St. Seraphim of Sarov: “In time, the Lord will give another certain period - about 15 years for Russia to repent. If after this Russia still does not repent, then the wrath of God will pour out on it in even greater proportions...” (hereinafter “Russia before the Second Coming”, M. 2003, p. 334).

The mystery of lawlessness, which S.A. wrote about in one of his books. Nilus is happening today clearly and openly, happening before our eyes. A striking example of this is the elections in Ukraine at the end of 2004, which covered up the violent seizure of power by pro-Western, and therefore anti-Orthodox, forces. Russia already had to experience this in 1991. Now, as then, the people remain betrayed and deceived: someone sings along with the new government, hoping that life will become better under it, someone, on the contrary, is fighting against the government also in the hope of a better life, someone is passively silent and observes what is happening from the side, saying, “my house is on the edge.” And only a few, taken as a percentage, try to lead the people to the true path. This path is nationwide repentance for the sins committed by the Russian people over the past 300 - 400 years of Russian history. For the last time such a rite of repentance was performed in 1607 by the Holy Patriarchs Job and Hermogenes in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. When it seemed that there was no end to the Russian turmoil, the Lord sent peace and prosperity to repentant Russia, bringing it through the crucible of sorrows and trials of the Orthodox Tsar, and accepted the prodigal Russian son into His Fatherly embrace.

And now, according to St. Ignatius Brianchaninova, “God’s mercy lasts and delays the decisive outcome... Those who are being saved must understand this and use the time given for salvation, “as the time is shortened.”

“The mercy of the Lord can be revealed if everything goes according to the scheme of events: sin - captivity - repentance - liberation. Judging by what is happening now, another option may await us: sin – captivity – insufficient repentance – God’s punishment – ​​the death of the majority and the salvation of the “small flock”.

Our sins have made us captives of Satan, for unrepentant sin deprives us of the grace of God and makes us accessible prey to the devil. A person without grace is powerless, and therefore defenseless before the devil, for “we are and are moved by the Holy Spirit” (St. Apostle Paul). The unrepentant sins we have accumulated are the energy of evil, thanks to which the Antichrist will rule over people. That is why the devil does not allow us to repent: we are his debtors, human sins are his nutrient medium, our sins are his strength and “right.” When we sin, we are disqualified as transgressors of God’s commandments and are in captivity of Satan, which is why he tempts us to sin and does not allow us to repent. Under plausible pretexts, we are provided with various ersatz - popular movements, congresses, symposiums, conferences. All this is good, but it gives little, since the most important thing is missing - the repentance of the people - and this does not save us from sin.

This is what he wrote in the early 20s. XX century St. Patriarch Tikhon: “The sin that weighs on us is the hidden root of our illness... Sin has corrupted our land, weakened the spiritual and physical power of the Russian people... Sin has darkened our people's minds... Sin has kindled the flames of passions, enmity and malice... Unrepentant sin has called Satan out of the abyss … May the entire Russian land be washed away, like life-giving dew, with tears of repentance and may it flourish again with the fruits of the spirit...”

According to the laws of spiritual life, some sins entail other sins, which grow like a snowball. If this process is not stopped in time, the snowball will turn into an avalanche, absorbing everything in its path. The sins of the Russian people, committed over the past centuries, lie as a heavy burden on us, our descendants. And our filial duty today is to remove this burden of sinful shackles.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, in his public speeches made in 1993, 1998 and other years, also repeatedly spoke of the need for nationwide repentance for the sins and crimes committed by the Russian people. In his address on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the assassination of Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II and his family, the Patriarch emphasized that it is especially necessary to bring repentance for the sin of atheism and regicide. This appeal was signed by all members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

So, dear brothers and sisters, let us pray to the Lord and bring Him sincere repentance for our sins and for our departed ancestors who did not have time to repent during the days of their lives.

Blessed be our God always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Trisagion and Our Father.

Lord have mercy, 12 times.

Glory, even now.

Come, let us worship our King God.

Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ, our King God.

Come, let us bow and fall down to Christ Himself, the King and our God.

Psalm 50.

Troparion, tone 6:

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, perplexed by every answer, we offer this prayer to You as the Master of sins, have mercy on us.

Glory: Lord, have mercy on us, for we trust in You, do not be angry with us, do not remember our iniquities, but look upon us even now, as you are gracious, and deliver us from our enemies: for You are our God, and we are Your people, all the works of Thy hand, and we call upon Thy name.

And now: Open the doors of Mercy to us, Blessed Mother of God, who trust in You, may we not perish, but may we be delivered from troubles by You, for You are the salvation of the Christian race.

Lord have mercy, 40 times.

The priest says: Let us pray to the Lord.

And this prayer:

God our Savior, like Thy prophet Nathan, who repented of David about his sins, granted forgiveness, and received Manasseh’s prayer in repentance, Himself and Thy servant (name), who repent for the same sins they committed, accept with Thy usual love for mankind, despising all their deeds Forsake untruths and overcome iniquities. You have declared, Lord: I do not want the death of a sinner by will, but as if he were to be converted, and I should live, and for the seventy to forsake sins. For as Thy majesty is without application, and Thy mercy is immeasurable, even if you have seen iniquity, who will stand. For You are the God of the repentant, and to You we send glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages, amen.

All those praying bend their knees, and the bishop or priest, on behalf of all the people, reads the following prayers of repentance publicly (if there is no priest, then, as a last resort, the laity can also perform the rite of repentance, except for reading the final permissive priestly prayers).

Lord Most High, Long-suffering and Merciful, have mercy on us sinners who do not know how to repent, and teach Your servants to cry out to You in great contrition of hearts, bringing repentance for the entire Russian people and our relatives who died in the great and grave sins of apostasy, perjury and regicide, hitherto unrepentant by us and weighing on us and our people.

PEACE TO YOU!

“Call the people to repentance: may they be washed with penitential vows and the Holy Mysteries, may believing Rus' be renewed” (His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon)

Attention! On June 7, 2013, the domain name of the site will change from will

UPDATE

Apology for those who do not remember, or the application of the 15th Rule of the Double Council in the current church situation.

Today our Fatherland, Orthodoxy and the Church are in danger. Over the past 2000 years, the enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ - the God-resisting Jews - have been dragging the Church into various heresies in order to insult the grace of the Holy Spirit and destroy the souls of Christians.

The article provides evidence and revelations regarding abortion, how God punishes this sin, and how to beg those guilty of it.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves: by their fruits you will know them.” (Matt. 7:15–16).

Comments on the article by A. Dobychin “The Fiery Wheel of Apostasy.” (Attached is the article “Holy Mount Athos - a stronghold of Orthodoxy”).

Report of the Archbishop of the Bulgarian Church Seraphim (Sobolev) on the issue “On the new and old style” (On the Julian and Gregorian church calendars) at the Pan-Orthodox meeting in 1948.

Akrivia (Greek ακριβεια - akrivia) - strict adherence to the dogmas and canons of the Church in the name of preserving the purity of the Holy Truth.

In the great Church of the Most Pure Mother of God, on the throne of St. Peter and Alexei sits a nasty, evil wolf in pastoral clothes, Judas the traitor, a participant in demons, a villain, such as has never been seen among heretics and apostates...

Carefully! “DH” (newspaper of the so-called “Spirit of a Christian”, or rather “Fooling a Christian”): the verbiage of Judas as a result of adoption to an ecumenist heretic.

“The Church of the Living God is the pillar and foundation of the Truth” (1 Tim. 3:15)
(CONTENTS: 1. Reflection of a humble heart; 2. A word on the condemnation of heretics by St. Joseph of Volotsk; 3. Renovationism yesterday and today; 4. Archbishop Averky Taushev; 5. Pan-Orthodox conference of 1948; 6. Fruits of the ecumenical tree; 7. Unions and uniatism ; 8. Secret Uniateism - a new doctrine of the struggle against Orthodoxy; 9. In aid of the “Holy and Great Council of the Eastern Orthodox Church” 10. Conclusion.)

It becomes painful and bitter in your soul when you read the issues of the newspaper “The Spirit of a Christian” in recent months. Where does it really lead those seeking salvation today?

Comments on the article “Conversation with an elder: the commandment to endure”

The unity of the Church is based on the Eucharistic communion of bishops among themselves. Accordingly, the clergy and laity under their control are in Eucharistic communion. (Attached is the DECISION of St. Peter and the Holy Synod of November 7/20, 1920, No. 362).

As you know, on this day, at the monument to Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II in the village of Taininskoye (Moscow, Mytishchi), the Rite of National Repentance took place. Photo sent by Ruslan and Maria, Moscow region.

On November 10, 2007, myrrh appeared on the icon of the Royal Martyrs. The letter was sent by R.B. Igor, Rostov-on-Don.

R.b. Mikhail, r.b. Irina, Ryazan region, Klepikovsky district, Tamyshevo village.

On May 19, before the start of the National Repentance, which took place on the birthday of Emperor Nicholas II, on the day of church memory of the holy righteous Job the Long-Suffering, rainbow crowns around the sun could be seen for a long time.

On this day, a rainbow around the sun was observed in the sky three times. The very same sunshine in contour resembled the Holy Royal Martyrs.

After several trips to the Rite of Repentance in Taininskoye, the faces of the holy royal martyrs Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra gradually began to appear on the glass of the icon case.

Brothers and sisters! The Lord never ceases to show us His miracles... On September 16, immediately after the performance of the Nationwide repentance, which took place on the eve of the glorification of St. Joasaph of Belgorod, the wonderworker, a miracle was performed - a rainbow appeared three times around the sun.

With God's help, information is being replenished about all the Rites of National Repentance that have taken place during this time, starting from October 2004.

National repentance took place on the birthday of Emperor Nicholas II, as well as the day of church memory of the holy righteous Job the Long-Suffering.

I N F O R M A T I O R A Z D E L A H

The following sections are available on the site:

– – This section contains messages from the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on the 75th and 80th anniversary of the assassination of Emperor Nicholas II and His Family.
– – This section provides statements by the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church on repentance for the sin of regicide.
– – Apology of the National Repentance of the Russian People.
– – Here you will find historical information about the village. Taininskoe and Mytishchi.
– – In this section, we intend to cover in detail all the cases known to us of the miraculous influence of God’s Grace on people who took part in this rite of repentance, as well as the signs occurring here.
– – Here you can find answers to your questions about the Rite of Repentance of the Russian people.
– – In this section, you will have access to sermons dedicated to different dates, as well as various excerpts and articles.
– – In this section you will find information about past Rites of Repentance and what dates they were dedicated to.

We bring to your attention a series of photographs, including the testimonies of God revealed at the Rites of National Repentance, which took place from October 2004 to December 2007. The photographs are presented in the form of a presentation with sound and a brief description of the days associated with the dates.
You can download it from the following link: