And here, I think, the world should play their role. It is not necessary to put a priest, especially a young one, on such a pedestal that he thinks that he is a spiritual genius. And it is necessary to support him, so that he will not be afraid to be an ordinary, "semi-talentless" priest, if he is like that. You have the right to expect a priest to reverently conduct services, to pray for you and with you, but the priest does not give the priest either theological knowledge or

"discernment of spirits", nor understanding of what another person is having, nor the ability to know. It's all different, anyone can have it. But the priest is given the grace to administer the sacraments; You can take them from him. As for the rest, it seems to me that it is necessary to develop more cooperation between the laity and priests, so that the priest does not have a tendency and desire to rule over the inheritance of God. Because the laity can make some kind of pseudo-priest out of him: he will imagine that he is a spiritual father, that he "leads" and knows everything. I think that there should be cooperation, cooperation. This is what I have learned in my life; I don't want to say that I'm better than anyone else, but I know that, and all this is more for me to judge and condemn than to someone who doesn't know.

Answers to questions

You once mentioned the Russian student movement. Do you think that such a form of reviving relations is real? After all, we entrust a lot of things to priests, to our bishops, we constantly demand something from them, forgetting that we can do something too. Are such forms of work possible?

I think that there is no need to ask for the decisions of some authorities in order to do the simplest things. For example, in London, in addition to the lectures, we read reports: in English two times a month, in Russian one time. And we have five thematic groups led by the world. There is a group of the Slavic language, a group of studying the Gospel, a group of spiritual life, etc. And now we are trying to multiply them. Each group should be small enough to allow for a real exchange between people, a collective discussion of a topic in which everyone would participate; It is important that everyone participates. Of course, there are silent people who will not actively express themselves, but they will all participate equally with their silence, their thoughtfulness, their prayer. And it seems to me that it is very important to create such cells everywhere; Not along the lines of priestlessness, not that "we do not want a priest, we want to think for ourselves," but simply because a priest cannot do everything. And you don't need to be a genius to lead such a group. Let the leader not think that he should instruct everyone; let him prepare a text, know what this text means, find parallels with other passages of Holy Scripture, think about what this text tells him, what he is telling others. If there are perplexing questions, you can ask someone else. But it seems to me that it is very important that Christian communities, instead of being anonymous masses, should consist as much as possible of small, merging groups. It all starts small. Gather a few people around you and live it. If other people see any fruit, they will do the same; Maybe even a priest or bishop will be inspired.

I did a lot of youth work, and therefore it is natural and easy for me, but many do not have experience of such work. If they see that this is meaningful, fruitful, that it gives some kind of result, does not lead to any wild fabrications, it will be revived. But it should be taken into account that the Russian Church is a thousand years younger than the Western one. In a thousand years, the Russian Church has traveled all the way that the West has traveled in two thousand years; In addition to the culture of the West, the Greek culture was already much richer and more developed than the Slavic culture at the time of the transformation, so that a great deal was already ready and began to bear fruit.

Still, in Pravoslavia, the need for spiritual guidance is very developed...

Yes; But it seems to me that at times this becomes one of our shortcomings: the world is waiting for "leadership", and there is very little personal sense of responsibility. Being under spiritual guidance consists in standing before one's conscience, before the word of the Gospel, bringing one's sins to confession and repenting of them, making an effort to use oneself and on this path to seek advice, but not necessarily pointers or instructions.

When I got to London, I wanted to involve our old people in some responsible work. They answered: "Why, Father Anthony? You tell us - we will do ...". For practical things, this is not important, but in general, the Church is not so important, because the Church is something richer than just the flock and the shepherd.

In Shanghai, a Russian priest published a book of his stories (at his own expense, and I understand why); I read them at a time when I wanted to find some inspiration. There was a story about sheep and goats. It began like this: "I read to you the Gospel and saw how you all listened with pleasure and thought: Here we are – the sheep of the flock of Christ... And it is clear that you have never lived in the village. The sheep is the stupidest, greedy, most vile animal I can imagine; and therefore I have been appointed a shepherd over you..." In a softened form, this approach is often encountered in the righteous world: "We must ask..." Why?! If this is not indirect, there is no contrary to the teachings of the Church and the Gospel, why not do it?.. No, I need someone to say. And this "someone" in the result will imagine that he is special in some way. There is nothing special about him, the same greedy, hungry sheep... And when the priest says to you, "Do this," you must consider it; not thinking: "Maybe he doesn't understand anything?", but – "Can I do this?". If you want an opinion more autonomous than mine, take St. Theophan Zatvornik. He says: if you have a number of sins, take and fight with the smallest ones. By the time you learn to conquer small sins, you will have the strength and ability to fight with the sin, and then move on to the next one. And we want to go straight to the greatest and make ridiculous mistakes. For example, how many people say: I sin through grievance or vanity... – and how many priests teach: Seek mercy... The Fathers of the Church tell us that peace is a mysterious and divine thing, which cannot be defined. Look for peace with the phonar - you will not find it. It can be born in you, but you cannot simply switch from vanity or city to peace. But you can find something in the past, let's say, grace.

I'll give you an example. A girl of about twenty came to me, sat down with an unhappy expression of her face, lowered her head and said: "I am so sinful, I don't know what to do!" I answered: "Well, yes, of course, sinful, like everyone else, but what is so special? Why do I want to build such a family?" – "When I look at myself in the black, I find that I am good..." I advised her: "Stand in front of the head and look. Look at your beautiful eyes, your good nose, your good nose, etc. And every time you find something in yourself that you need, stop and say: Lord, thank you for giving me this! – because God gave it to you. And when you have finished your work and thanked God by the ears, by the forehead and everything else, say: Lord, forgive me that I have made such a sour expression on this beautiful, sweet face..." And this can be applied not only to appearance, but to many other things.

Now many people cross in an adult state and almost without any training. From the outside, it is not noticeable that they become better because of this, but these people themselves believe that they have become better...

If a person considers himself better than others because of the fact that some kind of action, the sacrament of crossing, has been done to him, he simply does not understand what has happened to him. Because the very essence of the Christian faith in the first place is humility. Not that the recognition of oneself is the worst of all, as the saints can reach, but a realistic attitude towards oneself. For example, I have been scolded or I have been sent to the righteous Church, and this has given me an ideal to which I must strive. Let me compare myself with this ideal, compare myself, and at every step see how far I am from it... You know, when you read the lives of saints, you say: we, in general, are worthless, and at the same time we feel that we are not so bad at all. They are conceiving people, but they see themselves as sinful. Why? Because they compare themselves with God, as they see Him more and more. They see the light brighter and brighter, and they see how dark they are, at best – half-luminous. And if a person exalts himself above others because he is a Christian or a Orthodox, he simply did not understand something very basic. St. Seraphim of Sarov was asked what signs that a person is buried in God, receives something from God – or from the power of evil; And he said, The devil is cold, he is dark, he is bitter, he is a hater. If your soul is cold, if you see everything in the dark, if you are proud and exalted above other people, if you consider yourself a righteous person and others to be sinners, then your religious transgressions are not from God... And God (continues Seraphim of Sarov) is light, God is humble. When your heart is bitter, when your mind is bright, when you feel that you are the worst of all, and yet you are loved by God and people, then you can think: Yes, this is from God... I think that we must remember that what God gives us does not mean that we have it. That is, we must assimilate what God gives us, otherwise we are given a kind of sealed package, something with seven seals.