Work on church holidays. They say that on major church holidays it is forbidden to work and bathe. Is it really better to go dirty on a holiday and lie on the couch? Working out of necessity is not subject to condemnation

Fourth Commandment

The call not to work on church holidays goes back to the wording of the fourth commandment, which reads "... do six days, and do all your works in them, but the seventh day, Saturday, to the Lord your God." On the seventh day, it was supposed to do works of mercy, study the Word of God, visit temples - live a spiritual life, take care of your soul. Church holidays dedicated to saints and events from the Bible fall into the same category.

The most revered of all the holidays on which one should refrain from work is Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. It falls every year on a different date. But for most other holidays there are fixed days.

Twelfth Church Feasts

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin - September 21;
Exaltation of the Holy Cross - September 27;
Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos - December 4;
Christmas - January 7;
Baptism of the Lord - 19 January
Meeting of the Lord - February 15;
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin - April 7;
The Lord's entry into Jerusalem - the nearest Sunday before Easter - is movable;
The Ascension of the Lord - the 40th day after Easter, always on Thursday, - passing;
Day of the Holy Trinity - the 50th day after Easter, always on Sunday - passing;
Transfiguration of the Lord - August 19;
Assumption of the Virgin - August 28.

Great church holidays

They are not among the largest and most famous, but nevertheless, if you have such an opportunity, it is recommended to refrain from working in them.

July 7 - Nativity of John the Baptist
July 12 - Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
May 21 and October 9 - St. John the Theologian
May 22 and December 19 - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
September 11 - Beheading of John the Baptist
October 14 - Protection of the Mother of God
July 21 and November 4 - the feast of the Icon of the Kazan Mother of God

What to do if you need to work?

None of the ecclesiastical bans on working on weekends and holidays applies to necessary and obligatory matters. Cooking, when it comes to the festive table and food for the family, daily cleaning, harvesting in summer and autumn, urgent repairs in the house - these are things that cannot be delayed, and therefore they are allowed and considered necessary. The recommendation is primarily about those cases that do not fall into the category of necessary or can be rescheduled without damage to the next day.

Fourth Commandment

Twelfth Church Feasts

Great church holidays

They are not among the largest and most famous, but nevertheless, if you have such an opportunity, it is recommended to refrain from working in them.

What to do if you need to work?

According to the fourth commandment, one must work six days, but dedicate the seventh, Saturday, to serving God and charitable deeds, leaving other worries on this day. Today, the Old Testament Sabbath has been replaced by the New Testament Sunday, and you have to do a variety of things these days, but church holidays are still honored as holy days and set aside for spiritual life. The fourth commandment The call not to work on church holidays goes back to the wording of the fourth commandment, which reads: "... do six days, and do all your works in them, but the seventh day, Saturday, to the Lord your God." On the seventh day, it was supposed to do works of mercy, study the Word of God, visit temples - live a spiritual life, take care of your soul. Church holidays dedicated to saints and events from the Bible fall into the same category. The most revered of all the holidays on which one should refrain from work is Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. It falls every year on a different date. But for most other holidays there are fixed days. Main church holidays January 7 - Nativity of Christ January 19 - Baptism of the Lord (Theophany) February 15 - Meeting of the Lord April 7 - Annunciation (the day on which the Blessed Virgin Mary learned the good news about the birth of the Son of God from Her) Last Sunday before Easter - Palm Sunday , Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem Fortieth day after Easter - Ascension of the Lord Fiftieth day after Easter - Pentecost, Descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles August 19 - Transfiguration of the Lord August 28 - Dormition of the Mother of God September 21 - Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary September 27 - Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord December 4 - Entrance to the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos Additional Church Feasts They are not among the largest and most famous, but nevertheless, if you have such an opportunity, it is recommended that you refrain from working on them. July 7 - Nativity of John the Baptist July 12 - Holy Apostles Peter and Paul May 21 and October 9 - Holy Apostle John the Theologian May 22 and December 19 - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker September 11 - Cutting off the head of John the Baptist October 14 - Protection of the Mother of God November 4 - feast of the Icon of the Kazan Mother of God What to do if you have to work? None of the ecclesiastical bans on working on weekends and holidays applies to necessary and obligatory matters. Cooking, when it comes to the festive table and food for the family, daily cleaning, harvesting in summer and autumn, urgent repairs in the house - these are things that cannot be delayed, and therefore they are allowed and considered necessary. The recommendation is primarily about those cases that do not fall into the category of necessary or can be rescheduled without damage to the next day. JOIN our group, we have a lot of interesting things!!!

Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov answers readers' questions.

I work for a secular organization. Often big church holidays fall on weekdays, and I can't go to church. And vice versa: civil holidays, most of which I do not consider as such, are days off. I can't quit my job. What to do in such a situation?
Andrey

According to canonical Church law, an Orthodox Christian is obliged to attend church on Sundays and on Twelve Feasts. Those who missed two or three Sunday services without good reason were considered to be cast out of church communion.
Now let's figure out with you what these can be good reasons. Such reasons can be any external circumstances that do not depend on our will. Illness of a person when he is forced to comply with bed rest. In this case, after the service, relatives or parishioner friends should visit him and bring him a prosphora from the church or what was consecrated in the church on this holiday: an apple, willow, Epiphany water or an Easter egg.
An important reason is also the obligation to care for a sick relative or friend when he cannot be left alone. Important reasons also include responsibilities at work or service. If the working day coincided with a church holiday, this, of course, is unpleasant for an Orthodox person, but his sin is not here. You need to go to the temple before or after work and submit a note for a commemoration of health (you can do it the day before).
The fact that you work during the holiday at work is not a sin, since it does not depend on you. But if you work at home: you make repairs to your apartment, or you do laundry on holidays, or you work in the garden at this time, this is a sin. A person is obliged to work six days a week, and devote the seventh day to God, that is, putting aside all his daily affairs, think about his soul. In the Old Testament, this day was Saturday, for Christians this day became Sunday, since the Lord on this day rose from the dead.
But even in these rules hypocrisy must be avoided. On Sunday, you can work, but not for food, but for the soul, when it is necessary to fulfill the commandment of love for one's neighbor, which is above all laws and prophets. For example, to visit a sick person on Sunday and clean his apartment, or to serve Him with some other work. Helping to clean the temple after the service on Sunday is also a charitable deed.
So you do not have to quit your job, but rejoice that the two greatest holidays - Easter and Christmas - always fall on weekends, especially since services are performed at night.

It often happens that you are riding a bus, and next to you they are talking and swearing, young and old, without embarrassing anyone. It seems to me that a Christian in such a situation should not be silent. I say: "Know that swearers will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. You insult the Most Holy Theotokos and your mother." Such words are overwhelming, usually helpful. Am I doing the right thing?
Servant of God Ludmila, Samara

You do right when you take the trouble to rebuke the wickedness of the people. The most important thing is that the proud pharisaic thought does not settle in your heart that you are somehow better than those whom you denounce.

Working out of necessity is not subject to condemnation

Can I work on holidays and Sundays? Oddly enough, this simple question, which does not require deep theological knowledge, worries many Orthodox Christians. Most often, this excitement is caused by the wording of the fourth commandment: “ Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy: work for six days and do all your work, and on the seventh day it is the Sabbath of the Lord your God» (Ex. 20:8). From the Old Testament we know that the violators of this commandment were expected to be universally condemned and severely punished.

With a superficial understanding of the issue, the conclusion really seems obvious: God said don't work, so you can't work. If you work, you will be punished. At the same time, bewilderment is expressed: what about the fact that we do not celebrate Saturday, but Sunday, which, according to church tradition, is the eighth day, and not the seventh? What about those who are forced to work on holidays and Sundays? Are bus, tram and train drivers, pilots, service workers, doctors on duty, grain growers, military men and many others who are forced to perform their official duties on holidays and general weekends, will certainly die? But after all, we use the products of their labor, services, goods produced "in sin" - isn't this hypocrisy on our part? Are we shifting the blame onto other people's shoulders? And then, is it really better on a holiday to indulge in idle talk and vainglory, drink alcohol, watch TV, mess around, rather than work for the benefit of yourself and your loved ones?

So, not though or not being able to find an answer, we often come to a situation where the sin committed on a holiday is considered the norm, and work for good is a sin.

Bringing life to the point of absurdity, we forget that the fourth commandment was given to a people who almost completely forgot about God. Let us remember: when Moses ascended Sinai, immediately, not having endured even forty days, the people of Israel deviated into paganism, and in fact before that they were shown such miracles that today one can only dream of. So in a situation of almost complete spiritual deadness of the Israelites, the fourth commandment was more than appropriate. For without it, the Jews could soon completely forget about what the Lord had prepared them for.

In this sense, severe punishments for breaking the commandments are justified: only the fear of retribution was the incentive that kept the Old Testament people from deviating from the faith, just as the fear of punishment keeps our children from disobedience and evil deeds. Children are not yet able to understand all the reasons why parents impose certain prohibitions on them, they are not yet able to make a conscious choice, and only the law given to them from above (from their parents) can teach them to distinguish between what is sin and what is virtue.

Actually, for this reason, the apostle Paul called the Old Law " tutor to Christ” (Gal. 3:24). It is in this context that his words should be understood: The Law Knows Sin” (Rom. 3:19-20).

But all this applies exclusively to the decrepit, weak-souled person. Christians are different. Even in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah it is written: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that my covenant they have broken... But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts…” (Jer. 31:31-34). And today we see that, according to this Testament, we Christians have already entered the eternal Sabbath, which for us is Christ! It is He who is the Lord of the Sabbaths (Rom. 10:4, Luke 6:5). He Himself became a Sabbath for us; rest (Heb. 4:1-11, Matt. 11:28-30).

That is why the New Testament says: let no one condemn you for eating or drinking, or for any feast, or new moon, or Sabbath» (Col. 2:16); " He who distinguishes the days distinguishes for the Lord; and who does not distinguish days, for the Lord does not distinguish” (Rom. 14:6). And then follows a conclusion that radically changes the vector of the Old Testament commandment about the Sabbath: “ So, you can do good on Saturdays» (Matthew 12:12).

Strange, but modern Christians for some reason have forgotten that now the Lord is always with us! Now we go to church not out of fear of punishment, not because God has obliged us to do it, but because we feel an urgent need for it. We feel the need to be in His Body, to live His Life! In this sense, not only one day, but our whole life should pass as a constant "worship". And this “worship” should include not only a visit to the temple, not only private prayer (which, according to the commandment of the Apostle Paul, should become unceasing), but also work for the benefit of loved ones, for: But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has renounced the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Tim. 5:8).

Any work FOR GOOD is service to God (“worship”), and therefore it is blessed. Therefore, the holy fathers, in addition to participating in divine services, always urged Christians on holidays and Sundays to visit the sick, help the afflicted, feed the hungry, and so on. Caring for others should be an urgent need for every Christian. And therefore, all people who do socially useful work on Sundays and holidays, not only do not commit sin, but, moreover, do what is pleasing to God!

In this sense, the Church has never prohibited necessary-useful labor. So, for example, St. Gregory Palamas, exhorting Christians to attend church on Sundays, adds: “… Visit the temple of God on this day, and be at all church services ... and do no worldly work on that day, except for the necessary"(Philokalia, vol. 5).

The 29th canon of the Holy Local Council of Laodicea points out even more eloquently to all of the above: “ It is not fitting for Christians to be Judaizers and celebrate on the Sabbath, but do it on this day: and Sunday is predominantly celebrated, if they can, like Christians. But if the Judaizers turn themselves: let there be an anathema from Christ».

All interpreters of the conciliar decrees of the Church are unanimous that Christians forced for one reason or another to work on Sunday are not subject to condemnation. So, Bishop Nikodim (Milash) emphasizes that this rule “prescribes to especially honor Sunday, not to work and spend it in a Christian way. Concerning the latter, the Fathers of the Council add that this should be done if they can, i.e., as Balsamon says in the interpretation of this canon, no one is absolutely forced to do nothing, because if anyone, due to poverty or any need, will work on Sunday, he is not subject to condemnation for this.

Of course, we cannot talk about such patristic councils and conciliar canons becoming a reason (more precisely, an excuse) for not attending the service. But still the entire experience of the Church clearly indicates that constructive labor is a blessing, to the fact that a person (especially a Christian) must decorate and put in order the world around him (his apartment, entrance, street, yard, country, finally) with his work.

Looking at our littered yards, streets and cities, it is hard to imagine that Christians live here, who fear God, but do not love their yard, street, country, their neighbors ... From this look, the words of the Apostle John come to mind: “ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because there is torment in fear; he who fears is not perfect in love» (1 John 4:18). According to the promise of the Lord, the New Law, the law of love, must be written in our hearts, for: "Love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10).

And can this law justify laziness and idleness?

Hierodeacon JOHN (Ampelokipiotis)
Newspaper "Hodegetria"

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