Next to the pectoral crosses, candles and literature I saw a small bag of breadcrumbs. Price 32 rubles.
Crackers in the church, somehow strange, I thought and bought them.
This product was made in the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery. The Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Convent is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the village of Diveevo. Although in appearance these are ordinary crackers, packed in a regular ziplock bag, without indicating the date of production and expiration dates, as well as information about the composition, in fact these are not ordinary crackers, but consecrated crackers made from cast iron by Father Seraphim of Sarov.
I bought some crackers and tried them. Delicious, no complaints.
And yet, it became unclear to me how crackers can be blessed by crackers?
Here's what I managed to find out about this.
People came from afar to visit Venerable Seraphim in his cell located in the forest, many of whom managed to get hungry. Taking care of them, Seraphim dried crackers from the bread brought to him in a pot and distributed them to those who came.
The pot has been preserved. Nowadays, crackers are also dried in it and distributed for refreshment. Naturally, only part of the crackers are dried in Father Seraphim’s cast iron pot, over which a prayer is read, which are then mixed with the rest (according to the principle “a drop of holy water sanctifies the sea”).
The village of Diveevo, according to historians. formed in the middle of the sixteenth century. or more precisely, in 1559.
There are many versions of the origin of the name of this village, but the most widespread version is that this was the name of the first owner of this village, the Murza-Nogai Divey. The descendants of this Murza converted to Orthodoxy at the end of the seventeenth century and received the surname Diveev.
1) Trinity Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery.
Built by Melgunova Agafya Semyonovna (the wanderer), consecrated in one thousand seven hundred and seventy-two. Later, this same Agafya decided to found a community here and the landowner Zhdanova helped her in this, who gave her one thousand three hundred fathoms of land.
2) Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral.
Seraphim of Sarov said at one time that the Canal of the Mother of God located here, this is one of the shrines of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Convent, is precisely the place that the Antichrist will not be able to overcome in recent times. In general, here in Diveevo, everything breathes holiness, and an Orthodox person should definitely visit here.
First. what you bring from here will not be material. You will bring a new, clean outlook on life and people. But besides this, pilgrims bring a lot of other things.
Here you can buy icons that are imbued with the spirit of holiness and will preserve this holiness in your home. Another shrine is the earth from the same ditch of the Virgin Mary, it also carries holiness. It is advisable to take bags or jars for soil with you in advance; you cannot get them right on the spot. They are on sale in the church shop at the entrance to the monastery, but the queue of pilgrims here is quite large and you will have to stand for a long time. Pilgrims use this earth to cleanse their homes “of demons,” even if a very small amount of this earth is mixed with river sand, for example. then this spiritual mixture will acquire grace and holiness. Although you still have to stand, because rare visitors to Diveevo do not come to this shop. By the way, opposite the bench there is a little window in the wall where lamp oil is poured, you can also bring it from there, it is also holy. Everything here is imbued with holiness! This oil is special - it is consecrated on the relics of Seraphim of SArov and on the relics of the holy mothers of Diveyevo. There is a belief that if a drop of this oil is added to any other oil, then the entire oil will be blessed.
In a small wooden chapel, which bears the name of St. Seraphim, you can get crackers. These are crackers made from rye bread, they are a manifestation of the memory of Seraphim of Sarov (again, according to legend, he, at one time, gave such crackers to everyone who came to him, and the quantity could be different, he himself looked at how much to give out) . They, crackers, are also blessed. They are consecrated in the cast iron pot in which Seraphim cooked his food. It is impossible to say for sure whether this is self-hypnosis or in fact so, but there is evidence that some pilgrims, having brought these crackers home, with the help of them, received relief from ailments. And although crackers are distributed here for free, if you wish, you can leave a donation; there is also a box for them. By the way, the land from the ditch is located behind the chapel. There is an earthen embankment here, and the ministers always ask pilgrims to take a little of this earth so that there is enough for everyone.
Among other things, you can buy the wonderful book “Chronicle” here. In general, you can buy a wide variety of souvenirs and memorabilia here. There are plenty of little shops here, where you can buy crosses and stones with the image of Seraphim of Sarov. Not far from the holy place there is a market where you can also buy a lot of souvenirs. You will certainly understand what you can bring with you, God’s spirit itself will tell you. 
At the beginning of the last century, Diveevo was a small village located at the intersection of roads. Pilgrims who were heading to the Sarov monastery spent the night here. In 1758, Agafya Melgunova, a wealthy landowner who was widowed early and took monastic vows, stayed in Diveevo. In a midnight dream, the Mother of God appeared to her and ordered the construction of a monastery on this very spot. Sister Alexandra remained in Diveyevo, erected the first cells, gathered novices and hermits around her, and built the Kazan Cathedral. Before her death, the abbess turned to Father Seraphim - at that time a young deacon - with a request to take care of the monastery. After some time, the priest founded another community nearby, intended exclusively for virgin girls.
Photo: Igor Stomakhin/websiteThrough the efforts of Father Seraphim, the Churches of the Nativity of Christ and the Nativity of the Virgin Mary appeared next to the Kazan Cathedral. In 1875, the huge Trinity Cathedral, painted with Old Testament scenes, was consecrated in the monastery. Nowadays, restorers have restored the interior: they updated the gold-covered iconostasis, cast new lace fences, and cleaned the soaring walls. The relics of Father Seraphim are kept in the Trinity Cathedral. Next to the shrine you can see things that belonged to the elder: a mantle, a pectoral cross, leather gloves, shoes, a hoe. The relics were found incorrupt and have miraculous power. Many cases of healing were observed among those who venerated the relics with faith in their healing properties.
Next to the monastery gates, in a small white and green house, there is a museum of Blessed Paraskeva Ivanovna, known as Pasha of Sarov. An amazing woman who lived 120 years, knew how to predict the future and taught how to fight sins. Rumors about her spread throughout Russia. In her room, Pasha received up to a hundred guests a day. In 1903, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra visited her. Paraskeva Ivanovna received them as ordinary visitors, inviting them to sit on the floor. The blessed one predicted everything that happened later - the death of the dynasty, the defeat of the Church and a sea of blood. She handed the queen a piece of calico with the words: “Take it for your little son’s pants, and when he is born, you will believe everything I said.” A year later, an heir was born into the royal family - Tsarevich Alexei.
Among the original things that belonged to the blessed one, a blue sundress, an icon of John the Baptist and an oil lamp have been preserved. The dolls that she fed, put to bed, and used for fortune-telling are laid out on the bed. A high-quality and clear photograph of Pasha Sarovskaya hangs on the wall. Most likely, it was made by one of the nuns of the monastery. In addition to musical notation, icon painting and lithography, the nuns mastered the techniques of photographic art. The camera on a tripod was brought from St. Petersburg by Abbess Elizaveta Ushakova, an energetic and economic abbess, under whom the monastery reached its greatest prosperity. On the table under glass there are personal belongings, and against the wall there is a harmonium, which Mother Elizabeth loved to play.
In one of the rooms of the museum, the hermitage of Father Seraphim, located in Sarov, is reconstructed. There is no bed in the small cell - the elder slept on a rug near the door. He prayed until late at night, and in the morning he went to obedience. Here is a chair made by the hands of a saint. Seraphim of Sarov seated guests on it, and he himself sat next to it, on a small stump, so as to be slightly lower than the person sitting. This is how the priest expressed his humility before people. The ladder used to move the valve in the furnace was also made by the hands of the elder. He also made a prayer stand in the form of a stool. There is a black spot on the seat. The saint died while praying, and a falling candle set fire to some things, including a stool. In the hermitage hangs a copy of the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness”. The real icon to which Father Seraphim venerated is located in Moscow, in the Patriarchal chambers. After the Diveyevo Monastery was closed, the holy image was secretly taken to Murom, where it was kept until 1991, then it was transferred to the capital residence of the Patriarch.
Pilgrims from all over Russia come to the Seraphim-Diveevo Convent to venerate the holy relics, stand at the icons, and bathe in healing springs. There are many springs and springs in this region - there is even a guide to the holy springs of the Diveyevo region. But even without a guidebook, everyone knows that the main source is located on the Satis River near the village of Tsyganovka. Several streams merge in one place, forming a small lake. Somewhere here, in a dense forest, Father Seraphim lived in a cell. An elegant chapel built on the shore is dedicated to him.
Along the shore there are elegant log huts for those who want to dive in secret from prying eyes. The water temperature in the Seraphim of Sarov spring, even on the hottest days, does not exceed 4°C. To plunge headlong into holy water three times means to perform a feat in the name of faith and drive away unclean spirits. This is not just bathing, but a whole ritual. A woman, as a sign of purity and submission, should enter the water in a simple shirt, with a scarf on her head. There cannot be frivolous frills, bows, or ribbons on the shirt - as knowledgeable people say, demons can get caught on them. Some pilgrims immerse children's clothes in holy water. They say that God's grace will certainly descend on a child who wears these things.
In Soviet times, a rumor spread around Diveyevo that the local authorities allegedly decided to fill up the spring. A tractor was driven to the water, but the engine immediately stalled. A hunched, gray-haired old man appeared before the tractor driver. He asked not to bury the miraculous reservoir. The worker obeyed and did not do it. Soon a miracle happened - the tractor driver won a Lada car in the lottery. And the party leader who ordered the destruction of the spring was kicked out of work after some time.
Miracles always happen in Diveevo. Either the silhouettes of cathedrals and the outlines of domes will appear in the night sky, then ancient frescoes will appear on the walls of an unrestored church, then a growth in the form of a bear’s muzzle will appear on the birch tree - exactly the same clubfooted bear that Father Seraphim fed from his hand!
Ordinary everyday problems, which until recently seemed important, in Diveevo recede into the background and disappear somewhere. Probably, the pastoral rural landscape with front gardens near wooden houses, apple orchards and a quiet river overgrown with reeds has an effect. It is calm, quiet and unfussy here. Local residents ride their bicycles, crossing themselves as they go and greeting their acquaintances with a nod of their heads. From any point in the regional center one can see the domes and bell towers of the monastery cathedrals, covered with clouds of noisy jackdaws and crows. The life of the monastery with its holidays, religious processions, the ringing of bells, nuns, laborers, and novices visible everywhere is dissolved in the Diveyevo atmosphere.
In the evenings, lined up in pairs and holding candles in their hands, the sisters walk around the Holy Canal. Believers believe that the Mother of God appears daily along the tiled path in Diveevo. Anyone can join the procession. In the footsteps of the Queen of Heaven, one must move slowly, repeating the prayer “To the Virgin Mary” many times. Anyone who follows these rules will have all their wishes addressed to children, relatives and loved ones come true.
The ditch appeared in Diveevo not by chance. Once, during the feast of the Presentation, at this very place, Father Seraphim met the Blessed Virgin. Having experienced a feeling of catharsis, the righteous man asked the nuns to dig a deep ring-shaped ditch on the territory of the monastery. The saint dug the first arshin with his own hands. During the years of persecution of the church, they decided to destroy Kanavka - they laid a sewer pipe along the bottom, and piled garbage on top. But the poplars that were once planted along the Kanavka have survived. In the late 1990s, a ditch laid many years ago was restored along these trees. Today the Kanavka looks the same as it did during the old man’s life. A two-meter-high rampart of earth overgrown with grass stretches along a deep and narrow ravine, the walls of which are supported by wooden pegs. The ditch is considered the main shrine of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery - it plays the role of a “spiritual wall”. According to many believers, the Antichrist, who is trying to subjugate Russia to his influence, will not be able to get through this barrier.
The sisters of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery wear closed black clothes - a mantle, a hood, and a paraman. Their faces and bodies are open only to eternity. In communication, the nuns are quite friendly, but they are laconic, and they do not have time to talk. Strict discipline reigns in the monastery, everything is scheduled by the hour - early rise, time of prayer and labor. The diet of the nuns can be judged by the lunch that the pilgrims are fed in the refectory. On an ordinary, non-fast day, it consists of a portion of cabbage soup without meat, porridge without butter and tea without sugar. The porridge is prepared differently every day - buckwheat, oatmeal, pearl barley. However, the sisters eat better than the pilgrims: on fasting days they are fed fruits, salads, fish, and dairy products. They prepare a delicious porridge according to the monastery recipe from steamed rice with pumpkin and honey.
Father Seraphim said that the most terrible sin is despondency. In order not to fall into this sin, you need to eat well and not skimp on bread. In the altar of the Transfiguration Cathedral there is a cast iron pot in which the Reverend dried crackers for numerous guests. According to the elder’s behest, crackers are still made in the monastery. Every day, from eight in the morning, crackers consecrated in Father Seraphim’s cauldron are poured out free of charge to pilgrims and tourists. You can only take one ladle per day. Anyone who comes up for crackers a second time will be considered a sinner.
Numerous church shops sell Diveyevo souvenirs - chains and crosses, bells and candlesticks. A brisk trade goes on outside the monastery wall. On the trays are laid out wooden icons and plastic bottles for holy water, bags for soil from Kanavka and cedar rosaries, shirts for bathing in the springs and mugs with the inscription “Diveevo”. The Church does not approve of souvenirs in the form of pebbles with the image of Seraphim of Sarov. Near the official church store you can see a notice with text calling the buyers of pebbles “fans of pagan customs.”
Behind the monastery fence, where there is a monument to Lenin and shopping arcades, the feeling of spiritual uplift weakens a little. The banal bustle of earth again surrounds us from all sides. But somewhere in the depths of my soul there remains a warm feeling of involvement in the miracles that are happening in Diveevo.
August 1st to new Art. (and in the old days this is July 19) marks 255 years since the birth of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the Wonderworker, a popularly revered elder, whose monastic feat, teachings and instructions are lovingly kept in every Orthodox family, in every Orthodox heart. And although Orthodoxy marks the dates of the death of saints as the date of transition to eternal life, we, according to earthly custom, cannot ignore such significant numerical values indicating the date of birth.
In the life of the wonderworker, from 1754 to 1833, there was a brief but very significant episode in 1776, when 21-year-old Prokhor Isidorovich Moshnin made a pilgrimage to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where Elder Dosifei blessed and showed him the place where he must accept obedience and take monastic vows, and this place was shrewdly named the Sarov Hermitage.
Let us note that this was also the year of the death of “Elder Dosifei.” Let us recall that under this name, Dosithea of Kiev (in the world - Daria Tyapkina; 1721 - September 25, 1776), an Orthodox saint, revered among the venerables, labored under this name in the holy Kiev monastery (on Kitayeva Mountain and in the Lavra on the Far Caves).
Let's put a more precise emphasis: the blessing given by St. Dositheus to the young Prokhor Moshnin, later Seraphim of Sarov (who was very ill as a child and survived only after the Miraculous Icon of the Kursk Root Mother of God “The Sign” was carried over him, and in his adolescence, as we remember, fell from the bell tower of the Church of Sergius of Radonezh under construction), should be regarded as a providential act of spiritual continuity and guidance. For those who are familiar with the lives of the holy fathers, this is not surprising; one might say, this is the “norm of patristic life,” but it cannot be otherwise. Nevertheless, such points of recognition always illuminate us, earthly people, with joy - precisely by bestowing a feeling of the earthly retransmission of the Holy Spirit, they point to the unity of Orthodoxy and the indissolubility of the Russian World abiding in Christ.
We, a group of Kharkov pilgrims, had the opportunity to bow to St. to the relics of Father Seraphim in Diveevo and walk along the Mother of God Canal on Easter 2003, one might say, almost on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the glorification of the Venerable One.
We then found the Diveyevo monastery in a state of busy festive preparations.
The saint's favorite icon was Our Lady of Tenderness. And now the main ones in the Trinity Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery are two large icons - Fr. Seraphim, located immediately behind the shrine with the holy relics of the monk, and symmetrical to it - Tenderness.
It was the column near this icon that our women were honored to wash, who joyfully responded to the request of the nun sister, in fulfillment of the priest’s covenant: to help the Diveyevo sisters.
In the Transfiguration Church, which some people verbally call “a monument to disobedience” (since it was erected in a different place than Father Seraphim indicated), we received crackers consecrated in Father’s cauldron, the same one from which he treated those who came to him with famous crackers to assistance, asking those who received to share them with those seeking salvation.
Archpriest Vasily Sadovsky also spoke about crackers (see in the picture) in his notes: Father Seraphim took a handkerchief from him and began to put handfuls of crackers on it “from some vessel”, which were so unusually white that the narrator “was born with such I haven’t seen it.”
“Here, father, I had a Queen, so this is what was left after the guests,” the Reverend said.
“His face became so divine and cheerful that it’s impossible to express!”
Needless to say, with what joy we, already in the 21st century, crunched on Seraphim crackers and with what frugality we took them home to give to our relatives and friends.
We also waited for the evening service in the Trinity Cathedral. The large temple was completely filled with pilgrims. The sun's rays falling on the icon face of the Mother of God illuminated our joy: Christ is risen!
I stood at the Reverend’s shrine, in the chapel where women predominated, echoing the choir in high voices. The choir of Trinity Church is strong and very beautiful in sound. The sisters sing professionally and selflessly.
Rev. Seraphim, for “perfect self-absorption in the truths of the Gospel,” was once during the liturgy even awarded a vision of the Lord surrounded by the Heavenly Forces, and at the age of fifty - an incomprehensible admiration (like Apostle Paul and St. Andrew the Fool) to Heaven. “I don’t know, with the body or apart from the body, God knows, this is incomprehensible,” the priest told one monk. “But it’s impossible to tell you about the joy and heavenly sweetness that I tasted there.”
At the end of the service, when the people reached out to kiss the cross, the lonely, high, full, pure and some kind of unusual female voice, “turned on” by the marvelous singing of the choir and the whole high order of the service, the general inspiration, did not stop. Someone sang and sang, and people walked and walked to the cross... I squeezed between the people in search of the singer and found her. She was a woman of indeterminate age, seemingly blissful, wearing a striped-colored warm scarf, some kind of zipun and onuchakhs. Leaning half sideways against the column and raising her eyes to grief, she repeated and repeated the most important Easter phrase, which is the joy of our earthly life and hope. “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and giving life to those in the tombs!”
The next morning I saw this wanderer again - sitting on the sunny porch of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and leafing through a large old notebook or book taken out of a patchwork bag. I looked at her with tenderness, separated by a lattice fence that prevented me from approaching, and I would hardly have approached; What, what is stopping us from greeting a person? Tact? Conventions? But you had to come up and give her something - money, and candy, something tasty, Easter. I looked at her and thought: this is my sister. (Now I’m writing these lines, and again - my throat is constricting, as it was then. Who will explain to me why?) Why do two shortest momentary meetings with a person whom I will never see again and who never saw me suddenly become for me? so significant? Aren't these my tears joy for the Lord?
After the service, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, following the sisters, we walked along the Mother of God Canal, where during the life of the Rev. Seraphim appeared as the Ever-Virgin. Once a day, presumably at this time, the Mother of God visits Diveevo, Her fourth earthly destiny.
The groove storing the “piles of the Mother of God” begins immediately behind the Transfiguration Church (for some reason I think that one day it will be taken apart pebble by stone and moved to the place indicated by Father Seraphim; it’s a lot of work, but where to go now, it’s better to correct the mistake, especially since that this no small task is quite feasible).
At the beginning of the Kanavka there is a Crucifixion.
Now the Kanavka has the appearance that the Rev. bequeathed to give it. Seraphim.
Three acres of land that he received from the landowner Vera Andreevna Posnikova, so that the Mill Convent (established at the word of the priest next to the “main” one - exclusively for girls) could run the farm, Father Seraphim, on the instructions of the Queen of Heaven, ordered the sisters, without building any fences, to dig a ditch three arshins deep and three arshins wide, and fill the earth with a roller like a fence. And to prevent the tree from crumbling, plant it with gooseberries. The sisters listened to the priest, but were slow to begin work. And before the day of the Holy Trinity in 1829, Father Seraphim miraculously appeared here at night and began to dig himself. The sister on duty saw him digging a ditch and called the sisters with joy that the elder had visited them. They rushed to Father Seraphim for a blessing and bowed to him to the ground. Rising from their knees, they saw that the Monk Seraphim had disappeared. Only the dug up earth and the left shovel and hoe testified to his visit. Being eyewitnesses of an obvious miracle, the sisters began to diligently dig a ditch. Father Seraphim hurried them, telling them that, regardless of the weather, they dug at least a little, but every day. And by the end of Father’s earthly days - within two and a half years - the Ditch was dug.
And we set off on May 1 along the Kanavka in pairs, as ordered, reading “O Mother of God, Virgin, Rejoice...” A group of pilgrims walked next to us with large icons, singing a prayer out loud.
It’s strange to walk through the schoolyard, through the territory of which Kanavka now runs, to see schoolchildren milling about on their day off, indifferent and even somewhat irritated residents of neighboring houses. Truly - two parallel worlds. With open eyes, but as if not seeing the shrines near their homes, these strange people walk around. How could you grow up here and not be imbued with the spirit of these places?
Today, the Kanavka (see in the photo), through the efforts of the sisters and pilgrims, has taken on its proper appearance, been cleaned, and restored.
Walk along the path measured along the Diveyevo land by the little band of the Virgin Mary, about eight hundred meters. Somewhere in the middle, near a large tree, there is a stop for a short prayer service.
At the end of the move, we see the second Crucifixion, exactly repeating the initial one. Between the first and second Crucifixions there remains a fifty-meter section, which was not traversed by the nuns at that time - therefore the Mother of God Canal is not closed. This ditch is “to Heaven,” and, according to the saint’s words, the Antichrist “will not jump over it,” that is, everyone who is buried inside the territory embraced by the Ditch will be saved from the machinations of the enemy. But what should we do with the remaining, unfinished, vulnerable area?
We went to spend the night in a beautiful birch grove, on a tiny lake - not far from Diveevo. Some company nearby, on the opposite side of the lake, noisily celebrated May Day. The riotous joy of our neighbors did not in any way correspond to our spiritual structure. Someone thought out loud: isn’t it time for the revelers to go home? After a short time, a powerful, almost hurricane-force gust of wind came, strongly shaking the tops of the tall birches. It began to rain almost instantly. Leaving a large burning fire, the neighbors rushed to the car and sped away. And the rain stopped almost immediately.
On the morning of May 2, I rose from the tent at about six o'clock. During the night, birch sap flowed abundantly into the placed vessels.
Listening to the birds, it was impossible not to remember Elder Zosima, the mentor of Alexei Karamazov: “... Every day and hour, every minute, walk around you and look after yourself, so that your image is splendid. So you passed by a small child, an angry one with a bad word, with an angry soul; You may not have even noticed the child, but he saw you, and your unsightly and wicked image may have remained in his defenseless heart. You didn’t even know this, or maybe you already threw a bad seed into him, and it will probably grow, and all because you didn’t protect yourself from your child, because you didn’t cultivate prudent, active love in yourself. Brothers, love is a teacher, but you need to be able to acquire it, because it is difficult to acquire, it is bought at a high price, through long work and over a long period of time, because you must love not just for a moment what is accidental, but for the whole period. But by chance, anyone can fall in love, and even a villain can fall in love. The young man, my brother, asked the birds for forgiveness: it seems to be meaningless, but it’s true, for everything is like an ocean, everything flows and touches, you touch it in one place, and it reverberates at the other end of the world. It may be madness to ask the birds for forgiveness, but it would be easier for the birds, for the child, and for every animal around you, if you yourself were more beautiful than you are now, even just one drop. Everything is like an ocean, I tell you. Then you would begin to pray to the birds, tormented by complete love, as if in some kind of delight, and pray that they too would forgive you your sin. Treasure this delight, no matter how meaningless it may seem to people.”
These lines, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, are very similar to the famous words of St. Seraphim of Sarov, a mighty tree actually grows from them, like from a small seed: “My joy, I pray you, acquire a peaceful spirit, and then thousands of souls will be saved around you.”
...I washed my face in the lake. It was windy but sunny. Maybe this inexpressible and silent state of the local nature then inspired my companion with the impression that he formulated later: “... I am sure that while spending the night in a birch grove on the shore of a small lake near Diveevo, a light breeze was felt from the movement of the Virgin’s cape.”
Quite a lot, right?
Father Seraphim, pray to God for us!
PEBBLE
Kalika's song
Our father stands on a pebble,
Under the roof of the forest, it’s like being in a little temple.
Like a pillar, like a cross, like the Savior on Blood.
And he sings “Theotokos”.
Our father, our grandfather is standing,
A bear comes to grandpa
Try some crackers, some bread,
He puts his wet nose into his palm.
Ay, they wax, chirp, blossom
Pichugi! And stumps with stumps
Sat down, and the baby squirrels are on their backs
The elders' legs flash.
Let the seed of the serpent spread,
The business is getting stronger, -
Yes, a wonderful miracle, Diveevo,
Prayed among the roads.
And with grandfather - God's Mother!
And, despite the fact that the back is hunchbacked,
Pray for sinners, my friend,
The Lord's wrath is diminished.
Whenever Elder Seraphimushka
For all of Rus', I got enough strength
Pray without closing your wings -
Two centuries are like a thousand days!
Where the crafts of demons blow,
The angels of Sarov are crying there.
But the Russian seraphim are alive,
The cover conceals them for the time being.
The little grass grew,
Where the oak forest grows cold.
Even though there is not that pebble in the world,
Yes, the priest is standing on it.
P pilgrims arriving on pilgrimage probably know the words of Father Seraphim about the Diveyevo nuns: “Whoever intercedes for them and helps, the great mercy of God will be poured out on him.” And of course, any Orthodox Christian has heard: “Obedience is higher than fasting and prayer! And not only do not refuse, but you need to run towards it!”
We left at night and by morning we were already in Diveevo. We left the car in the parking lot and hurried to the Trinity Church to venerate the relics of St. Seraphim. There were a lot of people. The inner doors were closed, and we stood at the top of the stairs and waited. Then the voice of a nun was heard, who, without addressing anyone in particular, said: “Brothers, who wants to work on the Virgin Canal for the glory of God?” “Of course, we can work for God,” I thought cowardly, “but we have so little time and so many things to do: we need to confess, take communion, visit the springs, take pictures, get water, holy oil, take priest’s crackers, take a swim...”
Then events occurred that taught me to better understand that place in the life of St. Mary of Egypt, where an unknown force did not allow her into the temple. Listening to the life of the hermit in church during Great Lent or reading it at home, I believed that the unknown force that did not allow her into the temple was a literary allegory showing the spiritual inner struggle of a sinner. Now I understand: it was not a metaphor, but reality...
After venerating the relics of St. Seraphim, I went to confession to the priest. Now, it seems, it’s my turn, but at the last minute either a weak granny will pass ahead of me, then a nun, or a sick boy in a wheelchair will be given a lift. Some force pushes me away from the priest. The line of confessors moves forward, and I move backward. The early liturgy ended. No problem. I went to the later one. The line is moving, and I'm marking time. I was never able to approach the priest for confession. Waited for Vespers. Again, it was not possible to confess - the pilgrims, arriving in huge buses, act clearly and harmoniously - they rub the strangers back with strong shoulders and sharp elbows. The day ended with a religious procession along the Virgin Canal with rosaries. “Here you have Jerusalem, Athos, and Kyiv!” - said Father Seraphim.
And on the second day I also failed to confess. By the end of the day, my anxiety had reached certain limits, and in a conversation with Mother Zinaida, who was putting us up at the hotel, I complained that during the two days we were in Diveevo I had not received communion, and that I had to leave tomorrow. Mother looked at me carefully and said: “Let’s pray. Tomorrow you will receive communion.” I, being of little faith, remained dissatisfied with this answer, not relying too much on the power of prayer. If only she had given me a hand!
The third day of my stay in the monastery has arrived. In the morning at the early liturgy, I stood among the pilgrims, like a Pharisee among tax collectors, and waited for confession to begin, not really counting on success. However, the result exceeded my wildest expectations: having released two or three of those who were confessing, the priest carefully looked at everyone and, as if his gaze had caught sight of me, beckoned him with his finger. Not believing myself, I asked the priest several times with the same gesture: “Am I right?” Having covered me with an epitrachelion, the priest for a long time instructed me on the path of salvation, cauterizing my ulcers with fiery verbs. For the first time in my life I confessed so deeply, with tears. Finally, the priest absolved me of my sins, blessed me and kissed me on the cheek with the words: “It is possible to help you. Pray.” Stepping aside and finding myself almost opposite the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness,” I could not come to my senses for a long time, ashamed of my tears. It was then that I understood a lot and, as they say, received my sight... I understood why we pray to the Mother of God: “Give me a stream of tears, Most Pure One, cleansing the filth of my soul.”
I left the temple a different person. I wanted to love and hug the whole world. And when the nun stopped me on the way out and asked me to carry the icons and stacks of books upstairs, my joy knew no bounds - I ran, as if I had gained wings, and began to carry the luggage. The nuns noticed my zeal and gave me a reward - crackers, blessed in the cast iron of Father Seraphim.
