As Anton Pavlovich Chekhov said through the lips of Masha 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 have not come across Christianity in one way or another, would not go to church and would not hear such words as the liturgy, the all-night service 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 a Sunday or before a church holiday.
Ancient christians
The tradition of all-night vigils was introduced by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who loved to devote night hours to prayer . The apostles followed, followed by the Christian communities. It became especially important to gather at night and pray in the catacombs during the years of persecution of Christians. St. Basil the Great called all-night services “agripnias,” that is, sleepless, and they spread throughout the East. These agripnias were then performed all year round before Sunday, on the eve of Easter, on the feast of the Epiphany (Baptism) and on the days of honoring the holy martyrs.
Then all-night service was a special service, the creation of which was worked by great prayer books, such as St. John Chrysostom, Rev. John of Damascus, Sava the Sanctified. To this day, the sequence of Vespers, Matins and the first hour has been almost completely preserved.
All-night service concept
Often 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 all-night service is the gift of man to God. On it, everyone present sacrifices something: their time, some life circumstances, and the liturgy is a sacrifice of God to us, therefore it is easier to endure, but often the degree of acceptance of the Divine sacrifice depends on how much a person is willing to give, to sacrifice something To God.
The Russian Orthodox Church has preserved in its entirety a very complex, beautiful, spiritual all-night vigil. A liturgy performed on Sunday morning completes the weekly cycle. In Russian churches, evening service is combined with morning service, and all this happens in the evening. This was introduced by the fathers of the church, and this rule allows us to remain faithful to the apostolic tradition.
How to serve outside of Russia
For example, in Greece there is no all-night vigil, there is no vespers, matins begin in the morning and together with the liturgy take only two hours of time. This is because modern people are less physically and spiritually ready for service. Many do not understand what is read and sung on the choir; unlike their ancestors, contemporaries know little about the Lord Jesus Christ and about the Virgin.
In a word, everyone decides for himself whether he will go to the all-night service or not. There are no strict rules; clergymen do not impose “burdens unbearable” on people, that is, that which is beyond 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, etc.), but if the reason for the absence is disrespectful, then such a person should think carefully before proceeding with the adoption of Christ Mystery.
The Consequence of the All-Night Vigil
The temple is the place of prayer for Christians. In it, ministers utter various kinds of prayers: both asking and repenting, but the number of thanksgiving exceeds the rest. In Greek, the word “thanksgiving” sounds like “Eucharist”. So the Orthodox Christians call the most important sacrament present in their lives - this is the sacrament of communion, which is performed at the liturgy, and before that everyone should prepare for the sacrament. You need to talk (fast) for at least three days, think about your own life, correct it by confessing to the priest, subtract the prayers, don’t eat or drink anything, starting from midnight to communion. And all this is only the minimum of what a believing person must do. In addition, it is advisable to go to the service of the all-night vigil, which begins with the sound of bells.
The central place in the Orthodox church is occupied by the iconostasis - a wall decorated with icons. In the center there are double doors, also with icons, in another way they are called Royal or Great Gates. During the evening service (at first) they are opened, and before the believers there appears an altar with a menorah on the throne (a table on which the most sacred and mysterious actions are performed).
The beginning of evening service
All-night service begins with the 103rd psalm, which recalls the six days created by God. While the singers are singing, the priest censors the entire temple, and the smell of incense, solemn chants, calm, majestic movements of the clergy - all this reminds of the comfortable life of Adam and Eve in paradise before their fall. Then the priest enters the altar, closes the doors, the choir falls silent, the lamps go out, the chandelier (chandelier in the center of the church) —and here we cannot but recall the fall of the first people and the fall of each of us.
Since ancient times, people have longed to pray at night, especially in the East. Summer heat, exhausting daytime heat did not set up for prayer. Another thing is night, during which it is pleasant to turn to the Almighty: no one bothers, and there is no sun's blinding eye.
Only with the advent of Christians did all-night service become a form of public service. The Romans divided night time into four guards, that is, four shifts of the military guard. The third guard began at midnight, and the fourth - when the roosters were singing. Christians prayed all four guards only in special cases, for example, before Easter, usually they prayed until midnight.
Vespers Chant
An all-night vigil without psalms is unthinkable; they permeate the whole service. Singers read or sing psalms in full or in fragments. In a word, the psalms are the skeleton of the all-night service, without them it would not have existed.
Chants are interrupted by litanies, that is, petitions when the deacon, standing in front of the altar, asks God for the forgiveness of our sins, for world peace, for the unification of all Christians, for all Orthodox Christians, for traveling, sick, for deliverance from sorrow, misfortunes and etc. In conclusion, the Virgin Mary and all the saints are recalled, and the deacon asks us to “devote our whole belly”, our life to Christ, dedicated to God.
During Vespers, many prayers and psalms are sung, but at the end of each stichera, a dogma is necessarily sung, in which it is said that the Virgin was the Virgin before the birth of Christ, and then. And Her birth is joy and salvation to the whole world.
Does God need an all-night service?
An all-night service is a service during which blessings to God are often pronounced. Why do we say these words, because God does not need our kind words or our chants? 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 so beautiful. And if a person does not notice it, does not pay tribute to the artist’s skill, then he thereby robbing himself. The same thing happens when we do not notice God, we do not thank for our life, for the created world around us. By this we rob ourselves.
Remembering the Creator, a person becomes kinder, more humane, and forgetting about Him - more like a humanoid animal that lives on instincts and the struggle for survival.
During the evening worship, one prayer is always read that personifies the gospel event. This “Let us go now ...” - the words were uttered by Simeon the God-Receiver, who met the baby Jesus in the temple and told the Virgin about the meaning and mission of her Son. So, the all-night service (“meeting, meeting”) glorifies the meeting of the Old Testament and New Testament world.
Shestopsalmie
After that, the candles (lamps) in the temple are extinguished, and the reading of the sixth psalm begins. The temple plunges into dusk, and this is also symbolic, as it recalls the dusk in which the Old Testament people lived who did not know the Savior. And on this night the Lord came, as once on Christmas night, and the angels began to praise Him by singing “Glory to God in the highest”.
This period during the service is so important that, according to the Church Charter, during the sixth psalm they do not even bow and do not impose a sign of the cross.
Then the Great litany is again pronounced (petition), and then the choir sings, "God the Lord and appear to us ...". With these words, one recalls how the Lord at the age of thirty entered His Ministry, for the sake of which the world came to this.
Hallelujah
After some time, the candles are lit, and the polyeleil begins, the choir sings "Hallelujah." The priest goes to the middle of the temple and together with the deacon censors the temple with fragrant incense. Then passages 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 carried out from 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 message of Christ, the Savior of the world. The parishioners bow to the Gospel as disciples, and kiss it as myrrh-bearing women, and the choir (ideally the whole nation) sings "Having seen the Resurrection of Christ ...".
After that, the 50th penitent psalm is read, and the clergy anoint the forehead of each person crosswise with consecrated oil (oil). Then follows the reading and singing of the canon.
The attitude of contemporaries towards the church
Modern people began to relate to the church as something good, useful, but who had already said their word. They don’t see anything new in it, they often ask idle questions. Why attend church so often? How long is the all-night vigil? Church life is incomprehensible to those who rarely go to the temple. And the point is not in the Church Slavonic language in which the service is conducted. The very position of the church is unacceptable to many people.
The Russian Orthodox Church reminds the world about the meaning of existence, about family, marriage, morality, chastity, about everything that people forget about, sitting comfortably in front of the TV. The church is not priests and not beautiful walls. The church is a people bearing the name of Christ who gathers together to glorify God. This is an important message to the world that 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 all-night service, the clergymen praise the praises, and then the Great Praise. This is the magnificent singing of the Christian anthem. It begins with the words “Glory to the Most High God and the Peace of the Earth ...”, and ends with the three-holy ones: “Holy God, Holy Strong, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,” pronounced three times.
After that, litany, Perennial follow, and at the end reads “The First Hour”. 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 all the place where you want to return. To live the rest of the week in anticipation of a meeting, meeting with the Lord.