As Anton Pavlovich Chekhov said through Masha's mouth in the play "Three Sisters", a person must be a believer or seek faith, otherwise everything is empty, it makes no sense. If thirty years ago for many the word “faith” was associated with “opium for the people”, now there are practically no people who in one way or another did not come across Christianity, would not go to church and would not hear such words as liturgy, vigil vigil, communion, confession and so on.
This article will consider such a thing as an all-night vigil, or an all-night vigil. This is a combination of three services: Vespers, Matins and the first hour. Such a service lasts on the eve of Sunday or before a church holiday.
Ancient Christians
The tradition of performing all-night vigils was introduced by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who loved to devote the night hours to prayer. The apostles followed, and then the Christian communities. It became especially important to gather at night and pray in the catacombs during the years of persecution of Christians. Saint Basil the Great called the all-night services "agripnia", that is, sleepless, and they spread throughoutthroughout the East. These agripnias were then performed all year round before Sunday, on the eve of Easter, on the feast of Theophany (Baptism) and on the days of honoring the holy martyrs.
Then the all-night vigil was a special service, on the creation of which great prayer books worked, such as St. John Chrysostom, St. John of Damascus, Savva the Sanctified. The sequence of Vespers, Matins and the first hour has been almost completely preserved to this day.
The concept of the All-Night Service
Frequently the clergy are asked the question: "Is it obligatory to go to all-night vigils?" Believers feel that this service is more difficult to stand than the liturgy. And this happens because the vigil is a gift of man to God. On it, everyone present sacrifices something: their time, some life circumstances, and the liturgy is God's sacrifice to us, so it is easier to endure it, but often the degree of acceptance of the Divine sacrifice depends on how much a person is ready to give, sacrifice something God.
The Russian Orthodox Church has preserved in its entirety a very complex, beautiful, spiritual all-night vigil. The liturgy celebrated on Sunday morning completes the weekly cycle. In Russian churches, the evening service is combined with the morning one, and all this takes place in the evening. This was introduced by the Church Fathers, and this rule allows you to remain faithful to the apostolic tradition.
How they serve outside of Russia
For example, in Greece there is no all-night vigil, there is no Vespers, Matins begins in the morning and, along with the Liturgy, takesonly two hours. This happens because modern people are less ready physically and spiritually for service. Many do not understand what is read and sung in the kliros; unlike their ancestors, contemporaries know little about the Lord Jesus Christ and the Mother of God.
In a word, everyone decides for himself whether he will go to the all-night service or not. There are no strict rules, the clergy do not impose "unbearable burdens" on people, that is, that which is beyond their strength.
Sometimes events in the life of a believer do not allow him to attend the all-night vigil (urgent work, a jealous husband (wife), illness, children, and so on), but if the reason for the absence is disrespectful, then it is better for such a person to think carefully before before proceeding to receive the Mysteries of Christ.
Following the All-Night Vigil
Temple is a place of prayer for Christians. In it, the ministers say various kinds of prayers: both pleading and repentant, but the number of thanksgiving exceeds the rest. In Greek, the word "thanksgiving" sounds like "eucharist". So Orthodox Christians call the most important sacrament that is present in their life - this is the sacrament of communion, which is performed at the liturgy, and before that everyone should prepare for communion. You need to fast (fast) for at least three days, think about your own life, correct it by confessing to a priest, subtract the prescribed prayers, eat and drink nothing, from midnight until the very communion. And all this is only the minimum of what a believer should do. In addition, it is advisable to go to the service of the All-Night Vigil, which begins with the sound of bells.
In an Orthodox church, the central place is occupied by the iconostasis - a wall decorated with icons. In the center of it there are double doors, also with icons, in another way they are called the Royal or Great Doors. During the evening service (first) they are opened, and an altar with a seven-candlestick on the throne appears before the faithful (a table on which the most sacred and mysterious actions are performed).
Start of evening service
The all-night service begins with the 103rd psalm, which recalls the six days created by God. While the singers are singing, the priest censes the entire temple, and the smell of incense, solemn chanting, calm, majestic movements of the clergy - all this reminds of the comfortable life of Adam and Eve in paradise before their fall into sin. Then the priest enters the altar, closes the doors, the choir falls silent, the lamps go out, the chandelier (the chandelier in the center of the temple) - and here one cannot but remember the fall of the first people and the fall of each of us.
From the earliest times, people have longed to pray at night, especially in the East. The summer heat, the exhausting heat of the day, did not set one up for prayer. Another thing is the night during which it is pleasant to turn to the Almighty: no one interferes, and there is no blinding sun.
Only with the advent of Christians did the all-night service become a form of public service. The Romans divided night time into four guards, that is, into four shifts of the military guard. The third watch began at midnight, and the fourth at singingroosters. Christians prayed all four watches only on special occasions, for example, before Easter, but usually they prayed until midnight.
All-night chant
All-night vigil without psalms is unthinkable, they permeate the entire service. The chanters read or sing the psalms in full or in fragments. In a word, the psalms are the skeleton of the Vigil, without them it would not exist.
Chants are interrupted by litanies, that is, petitions, when the deacon, standing in front of the altar, asks God for forgiveness of our sins, for world peace, for the union of all Christians, for all Orthodox Christians, for travelers, for the sick, for deliverance from grief, troubles and so on. In conclusion, the Mother of God and all the saints are remembered, and the deacon asks that we all "our whole belly", our life be dedicated to Christ God.
During Vespers, many prayers and psalms are sung, but at the end of each stichera, a dogmatist is necessarily sung, which tells that the Mother of God was a Virgin before the birth of Christ, and then. And Her birth is the joy and salvation of the whole world.
Does God need Vespers?
The Vigil is the service during which blessings to God are often pronounced. Why do we pronounce these words, because God does not need our kind words or our hymns? Indeed, the Lord has everything, all the fullness of life, but we need these kind words.
There is one comparison made by a Christian writer. A beautiful picture does not need praise, it is already beautiful. And if a person does not notice her, does not pay tribute to skillthe artist, then by doing so he robs himself. The same thing happens when we do not notice God, do not give thanks for our life, for the created world around us. This is how we rob ourselves.
Remembering the Creator, a person becomes kinder, more humane, and forgetting about Him - more like a humanoid animal living by instincts and the struggle for survival.
During the evening service, one prayer is always read, personifying the Gospel event. These are “Now you let go …” - the words that Simeon the God-bearer said, who met the baby Jesus in the temple and told the Mother of God about the meaning and mission of her Son. So, the all-night service (“presentation”, meeting) glorifies the meeting of the Old Testament and New Testament worlds.
Six Psalms
After this, the candles (lamps) in the temple are extinguished, and the reading of the Six Psalms begins. The temple is plunged into twilight, and this is also symbolic, as it reminds of the twilight in which the Old Testament people lived, who did not know the Savior. And in this night the Lord came, as once on Christmas night, and the angels began to praise Him with the singing of “Glory to God in the highest.”
This period during the service is so important that, according to the Church Charter, during the Six Psalms they do not even bow and do not make the sign of the cross.
Then the Great Litany (petition) is pronounced again, and then the choir sings "God the Lord and appear to us …". These words recall how the Lord, at the age of thirty, entered His Service, for the sake of which He came into this world.
Hallelujah
After a while candlesare kindled, and the polyeleos begin, the choir sings "Hallelujah". The priest goes to the middle of the temple and, together with the deacon, burns the temple with fragrant incense. Then excerpts from the psalms are sung, but the culmination of the all-night vigil is the reading of the Gospel by the priest.
The gospel is taken out of the altar, as from the Holy Sepulcher, and placed in the middle of the temple. The words spoken by the priest are the words of the Lord himself, therefore, after reading, the deacon holds the Holy Book, like an angel proclaiming the news of Christ, the Savior of the world. The parishioners bow to the Gospel, like disciples, and kiss it like myrrh-bearing women, and the choir (ideally, the whole people) sings “Seeing the Resurrection of Christ…”.
After this, the 50th penitential psalm is read, and the clergy anoint the forehead of each person with consecrated oil (oil) crosswise. This is followed by the reading and singing of the canon.
Attitude of contemporaries to the church
Modern people began to treat the church as something good, useful, but already said its word. They see nothing new in it, they often ask idle questions. Why go to church so often? How long is the all-night vigil? Church life is incomprehensible to those who rarely go to church. And it's not about the Church Slavonic language in which the service is conducted. The very position of the church is unacceptable to many people.
ROC reminds the world about the meaning of existence, about family, marriage, morality, chastity, about everything that people forget about when they sit comfortably in front of the TV. The church is not the clergy and not beautiful walls. The Church is the peoplebearing the name of Christ, who gathers together to glorify God. This is an important message to a world that lies in lies.
All-night vigil, liturgy, acceptance of the Holy Mysteries, confession - these are the services that people need, and those who understand this aspire to the “ark of the Lord.”
Conclusion
After the canon, at the Vespers, stichera are read on Laudatory, and then the Great Doxology. This is the majestic singing of a Christian hymn. It begins with the words “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth Peace …”, and ends with the trisagion: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”, pronounced three times.
After this, the litanies follow, Many Years, and at the end the “First Hour” is read. Many people leave the temple at this time, but in vain. In the prayers of the first hour, we ask God to hear our voice and help us continue the day.
It is desirable that the temple becomes for everyone the place where they want to return. To live the rest of the week in anticipation of a meeting, a meeting with the Lord.
