Сповідник в білих кедах

⬆️ It's true that "experienced" people told me that it used to be different, but I think many people will understand the reason why the behaviour of clergy changed.

As for fasting and reading spiritual literature, there are also difficulties that are hard to understand without being here. However, reading is really the number 1 entertainment.

Some would say that the priest should enlighten, teach, and call for the change of life as one local said: "bring spiritual clarity" 🙂 .

But this is an idealised perception. Because we live here according to the routine, the rhythm, the interests of this place. And I will say a sad thing, but this is a place where a person loses his or her individuality. Here we are not factory directors, priests, judges, deputies, etc. We are prisoners.

But time passes, and step by step you bring back into your life what was dear to you when you were free.

At first, you learn to pray again, not in front of icons, but sitting on the bunk, or in the car, or in the boxes, and at the same time answering the questions of your cellmates: "Who are you praying for, father?".

Then you receive the first icon in a parcel, which your cellmates hang in the most visible place so that everyone can pray. Then sanctify your 'hut' and everyone prays with you.
Later, you clear the top of your bedside table and set up a prayer corner. And over time, others join your prayer and it becomes a norm, and your neighbours remind you of the time for special prayer for prisoners at 9:30 pm.

The need for fasting comes again, and the understanding how important is to prepare for the Confession andCommunion (in this matter I am in an exceptional position, since my lawyers are Father Mykyta and Father Aristarchus and they are both priests, and the place where I meet with the lawyer turns into a mini-church, where we communicate not only on legal issues, but also a place of confession and Communion).

Looking back, you realise that there is spiritual life, even in such conditions, even if it is different, but it is definitely there.

P.S. The most pleasant thing for me is to cross out the names of people whom we mentioned at the prayer service "imprisoned" knowing that they are already free. This is our hope that the prayer is heard by God, and the time will come when we will hear it too: "take your things and leave"!

P.S.S. This post should be published at the beginning of Peter's Fast, with which I congratulate the Orthodox christians. I am glad to be a part of the Church, which keeps its traditions and does not hurry to please the world, but tries to please God!

www.tgoop.com/innocentprisoner/121

628 viewsJul 3 at 16:00

⬆️ It's true that "experienced" people told me that it used to be different, but I think many people will understand the reason why the behaviour of clergy changed.

As for fasting and reading spiritual literature, there are also difficulties that are hard to understand without being here. However, reading is really the number 1 entertainment.

Some would say that the priest should enlighten, teach, and call for the change of life as one local said: "bring spiritual clarity" 🙂 .

But this is an idealised perception. Because we live here according to the routine, the rhythm, the interests of this place. And I will say a sad thing, but this is a place where a person loses his or her individuality. Here we are not factory directors, priests, judges, deputies, etc. We are prisoners.

But time passes, and step by step you bring back into your life what was dear to you when you were free.

At first, you learn to pray again, not in front of icons, but sitting on the bunk, or in the car, or in the boxes, and at the same time answering the questions of your cellmates: "Who are you praying for, father?".

Then you receive the first icon in a parcel, which your cellmates hang in the most visible place so that everyone can pray. Then sanctify your 'hut' and everyone prays with you.
Later, you clear the top of your bedside table and set up a prayer corner. And over time, others join your prayer and it becomes a norm, and your neighbours remind you of the time for special prayer for prisoners at 9:30 pm.

The need for fasting comes again, and the understanding how important is to prepare for the Confession andCommunion (in this matter I am in an exceptional position, since my lawyers are Father Mykyta and Father Aristarchus and they are both priests, and the place where I meet with the lawyer turns into a mini-church, where we communicate not only on legal issues, but also a place of confession and Communion).

Looking back, you realise that there is spiritual life, even in such conditions, even if it is different, but it is definitely there.

P.S. The most pleasant thing for me is to cross out the names of people whom we mentioned at the prayer service "imprisoned" knowing that they are already free. This is our hope that the prayer is heard by God, and the time will come when we will hear it too: "take your things and leave"!

P.S.S. This post should be published at the beginning of Peter's Fast, with which I congratulate the Orthodox christians. I am glad to be a part of the Church, which keeps its traditions and does not hurry to please the world, but tries to please God!

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