The Vorobyovy Gory educational complex (Vorobyovy Gory) is the largest state educational institution in Russia. The complex features more than 2,500 educational programs. In laboratories, studios, art and technical workshops, sports schools and sections educational complex More than 33 thousand children from 1.5 to 18 years old are engaged. Opportunities have been created for the creative development and educational and research activities of children and youth in the field of science and culture, technical, artistic and social creativity, information technology, ecology, ethnography, physical culture and sports.

Events

On November 26 at 12:00 local time, a geographical dictation will take place in all regions of our country and abroad. The large-scale educational event, initiated by Vladimir Putin, is being held by the Russian Geographical Society for the third time.

The most vibrant and multinational festival “My Home is Moscow” opens the Days of National Cultures with the Day of Arab Culture. The Day of Arab Culture is a unique opportunity to introduce children to this amazing culture, as well as to plunge into the mysterious world of art and life of the East, without leaving Russia. The program includes: an exhibition of paintings by national artists and elements of folk life; master classes on folk art (clay modeling, drawing, etc.); concert program; All guests of the holiday will receive treats in the form of national pastries and Arabic coffee (free of charge). Attendance at the event is free, but the number of places is limited

The large ethnographic dictation will be held at 1,500 sites in all regions of Russia and the CIS countries. We invite everyone to take part in the action at the Moscow Palace of Pioneers on November 3.

As part of the excursion, we will show and tell you about the features of the Botanical Garden of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers, and introduce you to a unique collection of plants collected from all over the world back in the early 60s and preserved to this day. And also, you will see one of the calling cards of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers - the Winter Garden. Gathering of excursion participants 10 minutes before the start in the main building of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers. The number of places in the excursion group is limited. Registration to attend the excursion is mandatory for everyone. To ensure access control, we ask you to go through free registration. The ticket will need to be printed and presented at the start of the tour.

On October 4, 2017, the Moscow Palace of Pioneers invites all Muscovites and guests of the capital to a celebration dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1.

As part of the excursion, we will show and talk about the features of the territory and architecture of the building of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers - a monument to the history and architecture of Moscow, the author's group, which was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR in the field of architecture

As part of the excursion, we will show and talk about the features of the territory and architecture of the building of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers - a monument to the history and architecture of Moscow, the author's group, which was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR in the field of architecture

The Planetarium of the Palace of Pioneers is a favorite place for guests of the Palace and students with their parents. People come here to admire the cosmic beauties and unique globes of Mars, Earth and the Moon, to touch a real meteorite (a fragment of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite is a decoration of the geological collection of the Planetarium), and to get answers to a wide variety of questions about the Universe. What awaits the participants of the excursion: - Acquaintance with the key objects of the territory of the Moscow Palace of Pioneers and the history of their appearance: the Monument to Malchish-Kibalchish, the Foundation Stone, the Zvezdochka pool, the territory of the parade square, the Winter Garden, a gallery of portraits of famous graduates - An excursion to the planetarium. Gathering of excursion participants 10 minutes before the start at the monument to Malchish-Kibalchish (from the street

On September 9, the Moscow Palace of Pioneers invites all Muscovites and guests of the capital to a large-scale celebration dedicated to the 870th anniversary of the city of Moscow. This year, on the birthday of their beloved city, Moscow children will be able to travel around the capital of happy childhood at the Moscow Palace of Pioneers on Sparrow Hills. As part of the festive program, participants will have the opportunity to take a walk around Moscow using the metro map of the city of childhood and learn a lot of interesting and unusual things about our capital

Tuesday of the 18th week of Pentecost

(Eph.5:20-26; Luke 6:37-45)

Gospel of the Holy Apostle Luke, chapter 6, verses 37-45:

37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, shaken together, pressed, and running over, will be poured into your lap; For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
39 He also told them a parable: Can a blind man lead a blind man? won't they both fall into the pit?
40 A student is never higher than his teacher; but, having been perfected, everyone will be like his teacher.
41 Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?
42 Or, as you can say to your brother: brother! Let me take the speck out of your eye, when you yourself cannot see the beam in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
43 There is no good tree that bears bad fruit; and there is no bad tree that bears good fruit,
44 For every tree is known by its fruit, because they do not gather figs from thorns, nor pluck grapes from bushes.
45 A good man brings forth good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man brings forth evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart, for out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks.

The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, Chapter 5, verses 20 - 26:

20 giving thanks always for everything to God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
21 obeying one another in the fear of God.
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord,
23 because the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church, and He is the Savior of the body.
24 But just as the Church submits to Christ, so do wives to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her,
26 to sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water through the word;

Theophylact of Bulgaria. Interpretation of the Gospel of Luke

(OK. 6:37-45) Luke 6:37. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;

The Lord cuts off from our souls the most difficult disease, I mean, the root of arrogance. For whoever does not look after himself, but only spies on his neighbor and wants to discredit him, has obviously forgotten himself, captivated by arrogance. He always thinks of himself that he does not sin, and therefore condemns others when they sin. So, if you do not want to be judged, do not judge others. For tell me, please, why do you condemn another as a transgressor of the Divine Laws in everything? But don’t you yourself violate the Divine Law (I’m not talking about other sins) by condemning others? For the Law of God decisively commands you not to condemn your brother. This means that you are breaking the Law. And being a criminal yourself, you should not condemn another as a criminal; for the Judge must be above nature, which falls into sin.

Luke 6:38. give, and it will be given to you: good measure, shaken together, pressed, and running over, will be poured into your bosom; For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

So, let go, and it will be released to you; give, and it will be given to you. For good measure, pressed, shaken and running over, will be given into your bosom. For the Lord will not measure sparingly, but richly. Just as you, intending to measure out some kind of flour, if you want to measure out without stinginess, press it, shake it and put it in excess, so the Lord will give you a large and abundant measure. Perhaps another witty person will ask: how does He say that they will give a full measure into your bosom, when He said that He will measure it to you with the same measure that you measure, for if it overflows from the top, it is not the same? We answer, the Lord did not say: He will measure it to you with the “same” measure, but “with the same measure.” If He said: “by the same measure,” then the speech would present difficulty and contradiction; and now, having said: “with the same”, He resolves the contradiction, for one can measure with one measure, but not in the same way. This is what the Lord says: if you do good, they will do good to you. This is the same measure. It is called overflowing because for one of your good deeds you will be paid countless times.

Luke 6:39. He also told them a parable: Can a blind man lead a blind man? won't they both fall into the pit?

The same goes for condemnation. For he who condemns receives the same measure when he is subsequently condemned; since he is condemned more, as having condemned his neighbor, then this measure is full. The Lord, having said this and forbidding us to condemn, also presents us with a parable, that is, an example. He says: he who condemns another and commits the same sins himself! Tell me, perhaps, are you not like a blind man leading a blind man? For if you condemn another, and you yourself fall into the same sins, then you are both blind. Although you think that through condemnation you are leading him for good, you are not leading him. For how can he be taught by you to do good when you yourself fall?

Luke 6:40. A student is never higher than his teacher; but, having been perfected, everyone will be like his teacher.

“The student is never higher than... the teacher.” If, therefore, you, the imaginary teacher and leader, fall, then, without a doubt, the student you lead also falls. For even a prepared disciple, that is, a perfect one, will be like his teacher. Having said this that we should not condemn those who are weaker and, apparently, sinners, He adds something else on the same subject.

Luke 6:41. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?

Luke 6:42. Or, as you can say to your brother: brother! Let me take the speck out of your eye, when you yourself cannot see the beam in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

“What,” he says, “do you see the “bough”, that is, the small sin of your brother, and do not notice the “log” - your great sin? This can apply to everyone, and especially to teachers and bosses, who punish even the small mistakes of their subordinates, but leave their own, no matter how great, unpunished. That is why the Lord calls them hypocrites, because they seem different (for, punishing the sins of others, they seem righteous), and in reality it is different, for they themselves sin, and even worse. Then he confirms His speech by example.

Luke 6:43. There is no good tree that bears bad fruit; and there is no bad tree that bears good fruit,

Luke 6:44. For every tree is known by its fruit, because they do not gather figs from thorn trees, or pluck grapes from bushes.

Luke 6:45. A good man brings forth good things from the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man brings forth evil things from the evil treasure of his heart, for out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks.

Just as a good tree, he says, does not bear rotten fruit, and a rotten tree does not bear good fruit, so the one who intends to make others chaste, to correct them and bring them into a better state, should not himself be evil; if he himself is angry, he will not make others better. For everyone's heart is a treasury. If it contains good, then the person is good and speaks good; if the heart is full of evil, then the person is angry and speaks evil. You can understand all this speech about the Pharisees. For He, turning to them, said: first throw the plank out of your own eye, and then the speck from your brother’s eye, just as in another place He said: “straining out a gnat and swallowing up a camel” (Matthew 23:24). How, he says, can you Pharisees, being rotten trees, bear good fruit? For just as your teaching is rotten, so is your life, since you speak from the abundance of your heart. How will you correct others and punish the crimes of others when you yourself sin more?

Saint Theophan the Recluse. Thoughts for every day of the year

(Luke 6:37-45). Don't judge, let go, come on. . . Apparently, everything is a waste and no profit. Meanwhile, this is what is promised: you will not condemn, and you will not be condemned; you will let go, and they will let you go; you give, and it will be given to you. Now this profit is not visible; but it will undoubtedly come to those who make the indicated expenses from the heart - it will arrive precisely at the time when the need for non-judgment and forgiveness will be felt most of all. How rejoiced will be the one who is suddenly honored to receive such benefits as if for nothing! And vice versa, how will one who at one time did not know how to profitably manage his property grieve and grieve! I would let everything go and give everything away, but it’s too late: there’s time for everything. Not everyone is chasing the kind of profit that goes directly into one’s hands, almost after spending. Throw the bread and salt back, according to the Russian proverb, and he will find himself in front. The modus operandi in the cases shown is indeed similar to throwing; but only here he throws himself not into trampling, but into the hands of God. In these hands the storage is certain, and the receipt from them is certain. Apply only faith and hope.

MODERN COMMENTS
(Luke 6:37-45)

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov

We should not be too harsh judges of others, because we ourselves need leniency. “Judge not, and you will not be judged,- says the Lord, “Do not condemn and you will not be condemned.” God will not judge and condemn you, and neither will people. Those who are merciful to the reputations of others will find them merciful to themselves. If we live in the spirit of goodness and forgiveness, it will be given to us to know what this good is: “forgive and you will be forgiven.” If we forgive the insult done to us by others, others will forgive us our hurtful words. If we forgive the bad actions of others against us, God will forgive us our bad actions against Him.

And He also remembers all our good deeds: “Give, and it will be given to you,” for God often uses other people not only as an instrument of punishment, but as a reward of righteousness. God will dispose the hearts of others to give to us when we are in need, and to give in good measure, shaken down, pressed together, running over. In the end, only God Himself can give like this. We should expect to be treated the same way we treat others. For “with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” Those who treat others harshly should not be surprised that they are repaid in kind. And those who are kind to others can hope that God will send them friends who will also be kind to them. Refusal to judge another by their deepest essence does not at all mean the absence of a hierarchy of values. On the contrary, the criterion of knowledge is obvious. He is in the fruits of their lives, which can be hidden.

None of us are immune from mistakes, and even from constantly repeating the same mistakes. There is nothing irreparable about this - as long as we are ready to admit them. It would be more significant for us to make a mistake in defining what is good and what is evil. Who is able to always see where there is genuine good, how to separate the wheat from the chaff, the appearance of truth from the truth, how to always distinguish with certainty the hidden breath of the Spirit of God from the obscure germination of evil in us? That which gradually reveals us in the fullness of Christ’s love, from that which increasingly drags us into the abyss of our selfishness? If I can never confidently say this about myself, where do I get the courage to say about others? How can I guide them and say at least one word that directs them to the right path?

Venerable Seraphim of Sarov testifies: “When I spoke from my mind, there were mistakes.” And the Monk Silouan of Athos, citing these words of his, adds that mistakes can be tragic. Can a blind man lead a blind man - will they both fall into a pit? Is there a more spectacular parable in the Gospel than the story of two brothers, one of whom has a plank in his eye, and the second has a speck in his eye, and the first is trying with all his might to take the speck out of his brother’s eye.

How can we pass judgment on good and evil ahead of time? In another of His parables, the Lord calls us to wait for the hour of harvest in order to forever separate the wheat from the chaff. Now He is sending us back to fruition time. There is no good tree that bears bad fruit, and there is no bad tree that bears good fruit. “For every tree is known by its fruit.” But until the fruit ripens and falls, there is a time of patient waiting, a careful attitude towards the juice rising along the stems, towards the life that blossoms in flowering, in pollination, in the ovary of the fruit - before the time of ripening comes. Only at the hour of fruiting is the tree recognized. And the Lord adds: “They do not gather figs from thorn trees and do not gather grapes from bushes. To the untrained eye, before this hour comes, all the bushes and trees seem to be good, and all the flowers are equally enticing and intoxicating. Only the harvest will reveal everything.

The same thing happens with people. The Lord often repeats that we will be judged not for how we outwardly fulfill the instructions of the Church, but for what inside, in our hearts, we have gained through them. We don’t turn to God only so that our habits and actions can change for the better; we turn to God so that our hearts become different. Good or evil, fig or thorn, grape or bush - it all relates to our heart. And the heart - whether it is a good or evil treasure - manifests itself in words. The Word, says Christ, comes from the heart. What fills the heart overflows in it. Saint Chrysostom has golden lips, because the words he pronounces from his inner treasure are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Poisonous, murderous words come from a divided heart, torn apart by sinful passions. Our words judge us because they reflect our heart.

As a last resort, we can resort to words to hide our thoughts, and we know how widely these lies are used. But it is impossible to hide our heart, for every word reveals it independent of us. Everything true and authentic that is in him, united with the Spirit of God, and everything that leads away from Him - a thousand desires that control a person and sometimes make him their slave while he lives in this flesh.

At this depth, one day a word will reach every person, similar to his own, but at the same time completely different - the Word of God, manifested in flesh on earth from the bosom of the Father. For He also speaks from the abundance of the heart, from what comes from the depths of the Heavenly Father. Only the word of God, emanating from these depths, can touch the depths of the human heart and wound it to death and to life, from which the word of love and thanksgiving is born, the prayer of praise is a good, perfect fruit, something that God never ceases to expect from man.

***

Priest Stefan Domusci

Many people have probably wondered what it means to be a Christian. However, to answer this question, you need to understand why you became a Christian in the first place, what motivates you along this path. As you know, the answers can be different, someone heard the call to joy and spiritual growth, someone hopes to receive a reward from God in this life or in the next, and someone is afraid of judgment and punishment. And although it is clear from the Gospel text that relationships built on fear and fear are far from the most correct, many believers remain at this level. Sometimes, thinking about his sins, a person may begin to become despondent, thinking that it is simply impossible to be saved.

And so, as if responding to such fear, Christ in today’s reading utters very simple and at the same time important words: “do not judge and you will not be judged, do not condemn and you will not be condemned.” It would seem that it would be simpler: don’t judge another person and you won’t be judged yourself. But what does it mean to judge? Really, having a conscience and an understanding of what is good, we cannot morally evaluate the actions of others? How then to deal with Christ’s call to point out his mistake to a sinning brother?

In fact, we, of course, can both evaluate and talk about the behavior of another person. Another thing is with whom and how to talk. It is important, for example, to understand that if we talk about a specific action - whether it is bad or good - this does not affect the person himself, but if instead of “he lied” we say that “he is a liar” we are talking about the whole person, with all his complexity inner world, with reasons and goals, we will reduce everything to sin. We will reduce the entire difference between a person and his action to nothing and instead of a bad action, we will say that the person is bad. This is what is called judgment and condemnation. After all, without knowing the reasons, goals, characteristics of upbringing and all other conditions, we immediately draw the conclusion that this person is a sinner. But what would happen if we were in his place, with his character, his upbringing and everything else? It is quite possible that we would have done the same. Guiding a person along the right way, we must do this with love, and not reduce it all to a sinful act.

It is interesting that, continuing a series of comparisons, Christ says that to those who generously give to another person, God will give overflowing measure, that is, to those who willingly show mercy and forgive, He will be even more merciful.

In this forgiveness and willingness to bear with sinners, Christ is our teacher. But what exactly is this apprenticeship?

The fact is that He, being completely sinless, does not condemn anyone, and He Himself says that He came not to judge, but to save the world. By saying that the student is no greater than the teacher, He emphasizes that the student, being a sinner, should not condemn anyone, because even his sinless teacher does not do this. If a person condemns, that is, proudly and exaltedly, without any love and compassion, reduces the entire sinner to his sin, he himself sins no less than the one whom he condemns. But if the condemner himself turns out to be a sinner, how can he be righteous? And if there is sin on his lips, then sin fills his heart. Conversely, he who is kind in heart will be kind in words, because he will speak from the abundance of his heart.

***

Hieromonk Feoktist Igumnov

Christ the Savior spoke about condemnation very clearly and understandably. There are no dark places in His words; they cannot be understood in any other way. But what is most remarkable is that there are no qualifications in His words that would allow us to make judgments about other people under certain circumstances. He does not say: do not judge, and you will not be judged, but if you see something egregious, then you can judge a little.

But with all the transparency of Christ’s words, we cannot avoid the question: how to fulfill the commandment of non-judgment in practice? And where is the line between condemnation and what we often call reasoning? Christ does not leave these questions unanswered. He paints an incredible and, one might say, absurd picture of two blind people who are out for a walk together, walking and guiding each other. This walk will inevitably end, if not tragic, then at least with a sad ending. The connection between a person who judges another and a blind person is obvious. Condemnation is always a lack of information, it is always a certain kind of blindness. It is in this vein that condemnation is interpreted, for example, by Abba Dorotheos in his soul-helping teachings. He gives a lot of different examples that prove one simple idea: no one can know everything about another person. Except God. And therefore, it is God who has the right to make decisions about certain of our actions, words or thoughts. Abba Dorotheos goes further, he talks about how to act in a situation when we become witnesses to obvious sin. Tells you how to react. Abba Dorotheos advises to pay attention to yourself and say to yourself: "Woe is me! Just as he sinned today, so will I sin tomorrow.” In fact, we may not understand how a person reached this or that moral crime. We may not understand how it is even possible to do this! But if we ask ourselves this question, we will definitely get the answer within ourselves. We ourselves will reach the state to which the sinner reached. And the answer we receive is unlikely to please us, because the one we condemned may have repented long ago and God accepted his repentance. But will we be able to repent and will our repentance be accepted by God?

SERMON OF THE DAY

(Luke 6:37-45)

Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov

In church we often hear that we cannot judge, but these words do not penetrate us. We are all so accustomed to condemnation that it has become a property of the soul and often we don’t even understand: how can this be? after all, this is obvious evil - and our heart is indignant, we condemn people out loud or silently, to ourselves. And in today’s Gospel passage the Lord forbids this, He says: “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” The Lord, it turns out, makes the judgment that will be carried out on us directly dependent on the one that we carry out on people. That is, if we do not want to be condemned by God, we should not condemn others. And we have something to condemn for, because there is no person on earth who has not sinned before God. There was only one person who did not commit a single sin - and that was the God-man Jesus Christ, and so all people sin. Therefore, if a person appears before the court of God, he will definitely see in himself the countless sins that he has committed.

“Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” That is, when we say: what should we do? This is outrageous, - the Lord answers: forgive me. There is only one way to avoid judging: if we learn to forgive.

To forgive, you need to have a generous heart, and to make your heart generous, you need to practice giving all the time. A sinful person is very selfish, he wants to take everything, he wants to have everything for himself. But if we want to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven, to reach God, then we must learn to give, then our heart will gradually soften, and as a result we will gain the ability to forgive. That is, the generosity of the heart is connected with the possibility of forgiveness: those who do not know how to give do not know how to forgive. And if there is no forgiveness, it means that a person condemns another for sin. If he condemns, it means that he will also be judged. Once he is judged, it means that “down and feathers will fly” from him, because not a single person can withstand the judgment of God.

Let's “good measure, shaken together, pressed together and running over”. This is how it is customary in the market to give “on the go” - not just a glass, but also with a small pile, they say, not in the store, you need to give more. So, the Lord speaks, and we need to not just pour in a measure, but press it tightly and add more. And John Chrysostom once even said the following words: “He who gives but not generously is not pleasing to God.”. We don’t know how to give yet, so we need to learn to simply give, and then generously, and only then we will learn not to judge and forgive. That is, we still have a very long way to go.

And then measure “They will pour it overflowing into your bosom; For with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” What is the law in the world? You give me - I give you. But with God it’s the other way around: as I do, so do I, that is, I must be the first. It’s good when a person feels gratitude and pays good for good, but a Christian should not do this, he should be the first to do good, without thinking about whether they will repay him in kind or not. For good, we know this from the experience of our lives, we often receive evil in return. The closest example is our children: how much work, sweat, tears, blood we put into them, and what kind of gratitude do we get from this? Yes, nothing, only evil, only troubles, only frustration - everything is the other way around. But this does not mean at all that we must stop doing good to our children. No, of course, just doing good needs to be extended further to other people. After all, when we do for children, we do for ourselves, because we love them out of passion, out of kinship. We are indifferent to other people's children, which means that we do not love children at all, but only our own, and if our own, that means ourselves. All such possessive pronouns! Therefore, our love for children is simply another form of self-love, not so obvious. So we must definitely learn to give in this exact measure. And to the extent that we are generous, to the extent that our heart softens, we will receive the gift of God, the grace of God, because the Lord Himself is good, and He can only enter into a heart filled with goodness. Therefore, we need to work on our heart in order to be able to soften it during our lives.

“He also told them a parable...” Although all spiritual life consists of things and concepts interconnected, here the Lord offers another teaching, asks, as we say, a rhetorical question, to which a completely obvious answer follows: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? won’t they both fall into the pit?” It is clear that they will fall. Further the Lord says: “A student is never higher than his teacher; but, having been perfected, everyone will be like his teacher.” That is, a person must be superior to the one he is going to teach. Parents, for example, have the authority given to them by God to teach their children because they are older and have acquired a certain amount of life experience. Or a teacher teaches students because he knows his subject much more and better than any student and can pass on knowledge to him. And the student who perceives all this can reach the level of his teacher.

We all very willingly, with great joy, always try to teach everyone in everything: not only our children and students, but everyone in a row. The Lord says that this cannot be done, and gives an example of a parable. And Elder Silouan even said: “Whoever is not given the power to teach, but teaches, insults the greatness of God.”. Why is this so? Every violation of God's commandment is an insult to God. But the Lord does not allow us to teach what we ourselves do not know, but we, although we ourselves still do not know how to do anything, always strive to preach, tell people, explain.

The blind man leading the blind will, of course, fall into the pit first, followed by the one he leads. We also know this very well from our own experience. When we begin to convince someone of something, talk about how to believe, how to pray, how to do this or that, after such a long speech we feel emptiness, despondency, and heaviness in our souls. It seems that we were talking about God, we were talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, about the grace of God, but why suddenly there is emptiness in our souls, why do we not experience joy? Precisely because they lost what they thought they had. All the heat went into the chimney - like in a stove, if you move the valve. Therefore, the Lord said: I do not allow this to be done. And the Apostle James says: “Not many become teachers, knowing that we will suffer greater condemnation.”

“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye? Or, as you can say to your brother: brother! Let me take the speck out of your eye, when you yourself cannot see the beam in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Often we teach others what we ourselves do not do, this is especially evident in education. We tell children: do this and don’t do that, but we ourselves do the opposite, so the children who take our example also do the opposite. And often they do not understand why they are being punished when they do the same thing that adults allow themselves to do. It turns out that adults are not role models at all, and children are to blame. Therefore, before you teach someone, you need to remove the beam from your own eye.

The Holy Fathers, who very carefully observed their souls, noticed this property: each in another can only see the sin that is in himself. If a person does not know some sin, then he cannot see this sin in another. If someone does not know what lies and hypocrisy are, it is very easy to deceive him. It is enough for him to smile a false smile, and he will consider that they are treating him well, that is, in his simplicity, he will definitely fall for this bait. If a person is an envious person and a thief at heart, then everyone around him will definitely be envious and thieves. Therefore, when you and I condemn someone, we thereby sign a sentence for ourselves: since we see sin in someone, it means that this same thing is in us, only to a greater extent - like a knot relates to a whole log. Therefore the Lord said: “With whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged.” If you judge someone, it means that it is in you too, and you will be judged for it, just as you judge someone else. This is a completely clear, absolutely indisputable spiritual mechanism. Therefore, we must be terribly afraid of condemnation and avoid it in every possible way. But we can avoid condemnation only if we are healed of our sins. That is, we must first soften the heart, bring it from a hardened, sinful state to a softened, kind one, and then we will not be able to condemn, but will be able to forgive. This is how everything is connected!

Further the Lord says: “There is no good tree that bears bad fruit; and there is not a bad tree that bears good fruit, for every tree is known by its fruit, because they do not gather figs from thorns, nor pluck grapes from bushes. A good man brings forth good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and an evil man brings forth evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart, for out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks.” Each tree bears its own fruit: a date palm produces dates, an orange produces oranges. Although the trees are all different, some are very beautiful, tall, others are small, unsightly, but we distinguish them precisely by their fruits: apple, pear, cherry. Likewise, a person’s entire life is assessed by the fruits it bears. And this depends on what his heart is: what is in a person’s heart is what he is. When we say that a person is bad, we do not mean at all that he is ugly, short, fat, wrinkled, lame. No, we mean only one thing: what his heart is like, and by his heart we determine whether he is good or bad. Because what is in the heart inevitably comes out. Of course, with a very good upbringing, which in itself is not bad, a person can train himself so well that he will not give away anything that is happening inside him: he will be angry, but at the same time smile; he will be greedy and pretend that he is very generous. But God doesn’t need this at all, people need it. It is people who ensure that everyone around them behaves decently, because then life is easy and simple. But this is not enough for God; God wants to correct a person’s heart.

And so, in order to correct our hearts, we must definitely learn to bear fruit so that evil, envy, abuse, irritation, slander, insults, and condemnation do not come from us. All these bitter fruits of our heart must be removed, and for this we need to learn to forgive, learn to endure, humble ourselves, not insist on our own, not seek our own benefit, but seek the benefit of another. But if we plant cucumbers not in June, but at the end of July, then we will get flowers, but there will be no fruits, because frost will hit in October and that’s it. It’s the same with us. Our life is very short, and it is given to us so that we have time to bear the fruits of good. In the garden of our hearts we must grow the fruits of Christ's virtues. The Lord gave us small faith, like a mustard seed, which must grow into a whole tree and bear fruit. Otherwise, like a barren fig tree, our soul will wither.

We are evil, sinful, lazy people, we don’t want to pray, we don’t want to fast, we don’t want to go to church, we don’t want to study the Holy Scriptures; We only want to achieve everything for ourselves: for everyone to love us, for no one to pester us, for us to go only where we want and do what we like. And of course, in such a state of the soul it is impossible to approach God, because God is love, and love is always self-sacrifice. We have love only for ourselves, we, on the contrary, want to subjugate the whole world, the whole universe: if I’m going to the dacha, I want the weather to be good; if I have a vacation and am going on vacation, then I want to settle down comfortably, cheaply and joyfully; If I come to a store, I want it to have what I need. Our whole life is directed towards ourselves. And if we continue to strive for what, in fact, all of humanity strives for: to achieve abundance, so that nothing hurts, everything is warm, dry and pleasant, then we will never achieve the Kingdom of Heaven. Modern humanity will not achieve the Kingdom of Heaven precisely because it is not seeking the will of God, but is seeking only its own benefit, in this selfish desire to ensure a sweet life for itself here on earth, destroying everything that God has given. But since you and I have believed in God, then we understand that our life is very short, fleeting, and there is no need to insist so much on our own, to constantly strive for some kind of extraordinary comfort, for a special over-improvement of our being.

Of course, if you devote your whole life to a career, making money and act purposefully, trying not to make mistakes, then you can achieve a certain level of well-being, but you will have to devote all your energy to this: you will have to abandon both your children and your family. And what will we achieve? Well, we will reach more or less some material level. But still, even very rich people who occupy high positions also suffer, they also have failures with children and in family life. And at work, a minister is subjected to the same pressure as a laundress, maybe even more. So you shouldn’t spend your whole life for some external symbols of well-being, because it’s simply pointless. Isn’t it better to think about what will be useful to us in eternity and will remain with us forever? Because pianos, dachas, cars are not bad things at all. Is it bad to have a three-story dacha? Not bad at all, very good; especially if there is gas heating, this is absolutely wonderful. But if you have to work from morning to evening to buy it - no, it’s better to limit yourself to a simple Finnish house, for three thousand, much quieter.

The desire of our heart is constantly manifested in what we live for. And since our lives are short, we need to constantly engage with our hearts. We need to constantly go to church, constantly read the prescribed prayers, constantly strive for communion, try to study a little of the Holy Scripture every day, force ourselves to do good, force ourselves, because we are evil people, goodness is not characteristic of us, we need ourselves to do this all the time to force, to try to somehow stir oneself up. After all, no one raised us in Orthodoxy since childhood. If we had absorbed this with our mother’s milk, it would be a different matter, otherwise our evil has already become a reinforced concrete crust - and this must be destroyed. How much work must be put in! What other additional concerns are there? At least try to tell the children something important, convey something spiritual. Because this is how we live our lives - so what next? They will end, our allotted seventy years, or to whom the Lord will give how much, so with what will we come to God? Let's try to sum up our life with a bold line. So, some amount of money has been accumulated, but it remains here; gave birth to children, but they remain here on earth; acquired some knowledge, but it is not needed there. Who in the next world needs chemistry? This is funny. There is a completely different world there, where we will be outside the periodic table. Here, for this life, it is good to know something, but for eternity it has no value. Only how we formed our own heart has value; whether our heart is adapted to life in the Kingdom of Heaven or not. Because only what is inside us, our core, our soul, is eternal and it inherits eternal life.

And we need to arrange our lives in such a way that we leave everything unimportant for later, and most importantly, take care of our own soul day and night, constantly. This is important. The Lord called it the only thing needed. And since we are people of little faith, selfish, narcissistic, since we are attached to earthly things, to coziness, to comfort, the Lord even promised us: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you.” You will have what you need, no need to worry. Otherwise, we rely on God - and ourselves, so as not to make a mistake: God is God, of course, but the money is not bad either. And it turns out that man imperceptibly, imperceptibly pushes God into the background. That is, this is the trick of the devil: everything seems to be correct, everything seems to be necessary, but, spending effort on it, spending most of his life, a person changes the places of these important things, and it turns out that the soul is put off until later, and the body moves forward.

Therefore, you can do all this, try to somehow improve your life, even the Apostle Paul speaks about this: if you are a slave and you have the opportunity to become free, free yourself, there is nothing wrong with that. But starting a war, fighting for the sake of some imaginary freedom, or starting something grandiose in order to improve your life somewhat, what’s the point? If it’s given on its own, well, let it go, it’s not bad at all, but God forbid to struggle. Just to have time to fight with yourself, to spend your life on this, to at least try to correct something in your heart. How much work it takes!

Anyone who has taken this path knows very well how difficult it is. If anyone hasn’t tried it yet, please try, at least from tomorrow until lunch, not to judge anyone and you will see how not only is it difficult, it is simply impossible for you yet, it is an impossible task - which means you fall under the judgment of God. Therefore, we must necessarily preserve these spiritual priorities, seek, first of all, the Kingdom of Heaven, seek, first of all, the benefit of our soul, and the rest will come later. We must try with all our might not to condemn anyone, and if it happens that we have condemned, immediately bring repentance to God, say: Lord, forgive me, I myself am damned, I myself need to be killed a hundred times, I am completely unworthy even of what has been given to me .

What audacity do you, man, have to say: this one is bad, that one is that? Why should gossips work hard? Isn’t it better to turn on yourself? Look at yourself in the mirror: who are you? Our mirror is the Gospel. Let's open it, let's see what a person should be - and what we are. We are too lazy to even come to church on Sunday, let alone save our souls and perform some spiritual deeds. Just come to the temple, and even then there is no strength, some worries are insurmountable. What concerns can there be besides glorifying the risen Christ on Sunday? But we have many, many things to do, and God is not in second place, not in tenth, but in two hundred and sixteenth. And then we also condemn: these bad ones, these scoundrels, those so-and-so.

Our life like this is complete madness, because spiritual blindness has taken over. All five billion are sliding into the abyss, but they think that they are building a civilization. This has already happened, and it is described in the Holy Scriptures: people built the Tower of Babel and thought that they would reach the sky. Of course, everything collapsed. So our civilization, of course, will collapse, and people will understand that their lives have been wasted. Like many people, when they are over fifty, they begin to understand that life has suffered a complete collapse in everything: in family life, in children, and in career. In general, everything that we strived for all collapses, because before the hour of death, all the romantic attempts of a person fade and life comes to a dead end. This is when a person is young, handsome - he is impudent, he smiles, it seems to him that everything will submit to him. But these fifteen to twenty years will pass very quickly, illnesses will begin, and a person will find himself face to face with his sins and with the impending, very close death - either a neighbor will die, then a friend will get sick, or he will bury a classmate. The shells are falling closer and closer.

The question is: at least at this moment, while your legs are still moving, can you somehow come to your senses, repent, think about your soul, start doing something real, real? And then you look - a grown man, respectable, maybe even has grandchildren, and he’s doing some kind of nonsense: watching TV or reading newspapers. Is there really nothing to do? You have to mourn your life, you have to try to correct your heart - but you’ve already become so petrified, stupefied, that nothing penetrates your heart.

This is what happened to us. Therefore, we must definitely try to undertake work all the time, all the time to break through, as if through a thick bush, to God, all the time to cry out to God: Lord, help! Lord, save me! Lord, forgive me! Always try to pray as concentratedly as possible, try to treat people with love, remembering that we are all sinners, we are all sick, we are all in the infirmary, and no one can help us: we are all just as unhappy, frantic, nervous. Therefore, you need to treat everyone with condescension, with patience, and not strive to isolate yourself from everything and arrange some kind of more or less calm life for yourself. This is useless, this will never happen: if you pull out the tail, the nose will get stuck; If you pull out your nose, your tail will get stuck. As soon as the renovations in the apartment were completed, my husband fell ill; the husband just got to his feet - the son started drinking; I just came to my senses and got drunk - my daughter started divorcing her husband, and my grandson blackened his eye. And so all the time. We keep thinking: now there will be peace, now tomorrow... We always turn to the “bright future”, we always live in the future: here we will be, here we will get it, we will buy it, we will get it. The devil leads us like they lead a donkey: they take a fishing rod and put a carrot under his nose, and he follows it, but the carrot doesn’t come closer. It’s the same with us, because the devil only lures with sin, but sin will never give joy to a person, it is always a deception. It looks sweet, but then there is remorse, then there is heaviness and disgust in the soul. Any sin torments us. That is why it is called “passion”, that is, suffering.

So we need to work not so that nothing bothers us, but, on the contrary, to enter into the fight against sin and try to engage with our hearts, try not to judge anyone, try to look at ourselves, get to know ourselves all the time, look into our soul . Every evening, when we stand in front of the icons to pray: it is not for nothing that confession of sins is given in the prayer book, and we should not just read it, but try to repent, see how many we have sinned today, how many times we have become angry, how many have become angry, how many have shouted, how many have condemned. How long did you pray? Ten minutes out of twenty-four hours. What about the rest of the time? They were lazy, offended, did not forgive, slandered, gossiped. Like cockroaches in a jar, we fiddle around, there is no purity in life. If we’ve already gathered together, then we start: she’s like this, he’s like that - and off we go. We ourselves are nothing good, we only sow evil around us.

And so the Lord would like us all to begin to improve. But this is impossible on our own. If this had been possible, the Lord would not have come to earth. And He came and shed His Blood to found the Church, so that we would draw grace from the Church, which is the power of God. And with the help of this God’s power you can gradually correct yourself. It’s possible to improve right away, but we don’t have the determination, we’re cowards, we’re still afraid of parting with ourselves, we rush around with our souls like a sack. And in order to gain God, you just need to destroy your soul for the sake of the Gospel, you need to give everything to God, put your hope in Him in everything - then we will receive it. But we are afraid. How so? A titmouse in the hand is still better than a pie in the sky. Mine, me, all for myself. That's why nothing works.

But if we go to church, gradually the Lord will be able to convince us that this path is the right one, and it is the only one. Millions of people have already walked this path and reached the Kingdom. Let's take the last holy Patriarch Tikhon or the ancient Sergius of Radonezh, the martyrs Boris and Gleb, let's take any saint. What a life! What people! We are taught: imitate Pushkin, who had three hundred mistresses; or Lermontov, whom his own grandmother corrupted from an early age; Tyutchev, who married twenty-eight thousand times during his life; Nekrasov, who lost his peasants at cards; Dostoevsky, who lost thousands of rubles at roulette. What ideals? Where are they? Who to learn from? Who should I imitate? Trotsky? Bukharin? Rykov? Or maybe Alla Pugacheva or Leontiev? Then we will really soon turn into monkeys.

These are human idols, but we need to look at something else. Let's look at the people who fulfilled what is written in the Gospel. They shine, shine with their whole life, they have no flaw. But we don’t know this at all; we imitate those who have achieved something in this life, perhaps something very great. So Tolstoy wrote “War and Peace” - but what’s the point if he was excommunicated from his native Church? Will “War and Peace” make his existence easier in the next world? All this has no value there. The only thing that has value is what you are. It’s not what place you occupy, it’s not what talent God has given you. After all, no poet can say: I created myself. God gave you talent - and you will be Mandelstam; God did not give you talent - and you will be some kind of Asadov. This is a gift from God. Is it his merit that he is talented? It's like saying: he's two meters tall! Another eats four times as much porridge, but only about fifty meters. Is it a merit of a person that he is beautiful? Why give him a prize for beauty? God created him this way, then we need to give a bonus to God. But God, it turns out, doesn’t need any bonus, God needs only one thing: for a person to give him his heart.

If all people, for all their talents that God gave them, did not glorify themselves, did not exalt themselves to heaven, did not create monuments for themselves, but thanked God, we would have a completely different life. And before, in ancient times, there were brilliant artists, brilliant musicians, architects, writers, but they never wrote on their works: so-and-so wrote, in such-and-such a year. No, they glorified God in their creations, and then sometimes, purely by chance, their names remained in history. We have a lot of brilliant works created in the past, but people created them not to glorify themselves, but to glorify God. That's why they are so tall, that's why they are so beautiful. And we need to learn in such a way that with our lives we glorify not ourselves, but God, so that, looking at us, people say: yes, this is a believer, this, it feels like a real person. Look at his face; look at how he treats people; look how good his kids are. Enter his house - how beautiful, orderly and calm everything is, how wonderful they live, because they never shout at each other.

When the first Christians lived in community, why did they immediately convert so many people? Because there was anger and hatred all around, and they said about them: how they love each other! And everyone around them strived for them, wanted the same thing, because every person was created by God, strives for good, he wants good, but does not find it anywhere, and it seems to him that there is only one evil around him and therefore he must be the most evil, only then you will achieve something. This is such a misconception. But you and I, thank God, have already come to church, we don’t need to be mistaken, we have guidance - the Gospel, we know how to act, how to act. We only need to believe to the end, deeply, not purely speculatively, but accept with all our hearts - and then the Lord will help us. Amen.

Church calendar. October 15

We read the Gospel together with the Church. October 15

We read the Apostle. October 15

Cartoon calendar. October 15. Hieromartyr Cyprian, Martyr Justina

Blessed Grand Duchess Anna Kashinskaya

This day in history. October 15