In the hole in baptism? What for?

1. Orthodox extreme
2. Speaking in the language of modern art, this is actionism - a person solves his religious problem through some kind of spirited action.
3. This is a pagan approach to reality when a person enters into a relationship with Heaven through some kind of deified matter and materialized objects.
4. “Brothers and sisters of walruses! Do you love Christ? ”
5. But life dwells, and the fact of this life is this: they will be dipped and will be dipped.
6. Between the blasphemy and the communion of the grace of the Holy Spirit
7. Because a person who performs such bathing thinks about God, for the sake of Him he does it. And then this dipping is a form of sharing the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Epiphany bathing, what is it - a tribute to tradition, paganism, godly work? Is there a place for God in dipping a hole in Baptism and what position the Church should take, priests reflect.

Orthodox extreme

Archpriest Vitaly Shinkar, cleric of St. George's Church in Chisinau:

Archpriest Vitaly Shinkar

Tradition Epiphany bathing quite humanly understandable - this is a kind of deed, an opportunity, having plunged into the icy water, to show one's brave valor.

Speaking in the language of modern art, this is actionism - a person solves his religious problem through some kind of spirited action.

I think this behavior is characteristic of all types of religiosity, but it is precisely a pagan phenomenon that has to do with primitive human notions about the relationship between heaven and earth. A person believes that there is a certain technology within which faith is not obligatory, but which allows us to storm the heavens with our own distance.

In general, bathing in the springs is a universally cultivated tradition. Today, in all the pilgrimage centers and monasteries hang ads, in which in red ink is written: "Bathing in the springs." What this means, what benefits brings, no one really knows, but this tradition begins to spread gradually outside of Russia.

Once I saw a bus of Russian pilgrims stopped on the Mount Athos, at the source of St. Athanasius, and all the men ran naked to plunge. The Greeks passed by, for whom everything that happened was, of course, a serious experience. And now, having seen enough of the Russian reality, and in Moldova and in other countries, too, all these bathing and dipping began.

This is a pagan approach to reality when a person enters into a relationship with Heaven through some kind of deified matter and materialized objects.

Some kind of mechanical piety - undressed, plunged into the water - and everything, you are already all spiritual. It is like an initiation - to experience cold, heat, pain. It is the same as calcium chloride intravenously - it does not cure, but you feel the heat of each cell. Therefore, such traditions remain and are even cultivated.

Unfortunately, if a tradition exists in our everyday life for more than 20–30 years, it becomes almost a dogmatic element. But we must speak honestly, the tradition of bathing is not ecclesiastical, and we need to “protest” a little towards it, that is, to remove the pagan raid.

Unfortunately, the attitude towards Epiphany bathing within the Church itself is not uniform - someone practices bathing inside the parish, even with the participation of priests, someone is totally opposed, someone looks at everything that happens as a folk tradition. But we need to work out a common church position, and then, at least within the Church, we will be able to honestly and unanimously speak of Epiphany bathing.

In the meantime, we have this: one said that it was good to plunge into a hole, the other called bathing a great Russian tradition, the third - a Yiddish-Masonic heresy, and the fourth generally accused America of everything.

As a result, what is happening today on Epiphany Bathing is a kind of Orthodox extreme, to which everyone has their own attitude.

Photo: Marina Lystseva

“Brothers and sisters of walruses! Do you love Christ? ”

Priest Sergiy Kruglov: Attempting both the “right” and the “left” to impose uniformity and order in bathing on Baptism, implant one or another point of view (“This is paganism!” Or: “This is primordial Orthodoxy, only devils of holy water are afraid! ") Grow from a single root - the Soviet one, from the lack of a free and conscious attitude to life, from the desire to say once and for all," how to correct. "

But life dwells, and the fact of this life is this: they will be dipped and will be dipped.

Priest Sergius Kruglov. Photo by Anna Halperina

I myself? No, I have never dipped myself and am not going to, perhaps my life is impoverished by something, but - to each his own, everyone lives only his own life, keep up with everything and try everything is unthinkable.

I just started with difficulty to understand what it means to live in Christ, I also try to try it somehow somehow, for the rest - my frail mortal forces are no longer enough, and among the sacraments of the Church, without which life in Christ is impossible, swimming in the winter Jordan does not apply.

But I don't intend to discourage those who want to dive, either. I repeat: God's peace is great, the life of men is diverse, they will want to go for a dip - they will not ask me. And, by the way, by the fact that a person “for health” dives into a hole in the night of January 18-19, to judge that He has fallen away from Christ, I will not — I will judge about such things, only He knows "what is in man."

The only thing that would be useful is for the priests present at this immersion, since this case is marked as ecclesiastical, to take breaks from time to time and, calling everyone to attention, simply and clearly tell people something like this:

“Brothers and sisters of walruses! I want to remind you of some things. If anyone thinks that the baptismal water washes away sins - he is mistaken, this is not true. Yes holy agiasma - a shrine, but sins are washed away by repentance, in the sacrament of confession and the correction of his life according to the commandments of Christ. True, you have heard such words and phrases, so I will explain it more simply: if we want to have life, not death, we need to establish lively communication with God. Only He Himself gives life, because He loves us. Are we His? This is an important question.

In the Church there are important ways to establish communion with Christ: to know Him through the Holy Scriptures and through His Body and Blood, that is, through participation in the eucharistic life of the Church, this is first and foremost, and this is the most important thing. So, dear walruses, I wish you to come out of this ice-hole sensible, and then, if anyone wants to, come to the Church to learn more about Christ and how to be with Him.

Therefore, those who are drunk for “sugrev” are sober, those who are not baptized — first go to a catechization course in any church of God close to you and be baptized, who are baptized — move aside the colorful dreams of “magic water” and cheap popular “heroic traditions”, and all - take a thought into your head: who am I? and who is god to me? isn't it time for me to return to him for real, in order to somehow change myself and my life?

And (I repeat - who wants, because the slave is not a pilgrim) come, we will try to figure it out together. Your life, your brains and your heart, your desires and claims to change, moreover so that with Christ it’s hard. And without this in any way. Without this, even if you sit in this hole all year round, there’s no sense. ”

Photo: Marina Lystseva

Between the blasphemy and the communion of the grace of the Holy Spirit

Archpriest Igor Prekup:

When it comes to bathing Epiphany, first of all, the attitude to this action depends on the person himself, who is dipped, on his spiritual state.

Firstly, a person may wish to bathe at Baptism, considering it a tribute to tradition, the opportunity to feel some kind of solidarity with his ancestors, who also plunged into the hole in Baptism, to feel tribal unity.

There is nothing bad in this, but there is little spiritual meaning in such bathing. If people think that through dipping at Baptism they maintain tradition and strengthen spiritual ties, this is parallel to the spiritual meaning of Epiphany bathing.

Archpriest Igor Prekup

Another thing is when bathing for a person is what connects him with the very Baptism of Christ. If for a person this hole is not just a place of ritual bathing, but a window on that same Gospel day, a fragment of Jordan here, now, in a given place, then with such a symbolic attitude a person really joins that very Gospel Jordanian waters.

Because a person who performs such bathing thinks about God, for the sake of Him he does it. And then this dipping is a form of sharing the grace of the Holy Spirit.

But I have big doubts that most of those who dip into Baptism refer to their bathing in this way. Often during mass swimming people think about anything, but not about the meaning of the holiday. For many people, Epiphany bathing is just entertainment, just another fun, accompanied by squeals, shouts with all sorts of traditional phrases that express thrills, not to mention all sorts of “aids” of emotional lift. Such swimming is not even parallel to the holiday and its meaning, but against it.

If a person just morgues on any other day, in any other hole, not dedicated to the feast of Epiphany, let him go as he wants. And all the idiomatic expressions that he allows himself while bathing remain on his conscience at this moment, as at any other moment in his life. This is a life, cultural pastime.

But when the hole was dedicated to the event of the Baptism of the Lord, and even cut down in the form of a cross to help a person tune in properly, not to mention the water sacrifice performed here a little earlier, and the person dips as if he was led to an amusement park. as blasphemy.

Therefore, if a person decides to participate in the Epiphany bathing and does not want to blaspheme, let him first tune in properly, be aware of the meaning of the holiday, while not letting those around him frivolous to move themselves away from this common spirit, and then do the dipping in the Jordan ice-hole.

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