The monk is the degree of monasticism

After seventy years of persecution, not only churches, but also monasteries began to revive in our country. More and more people turn to faith as the only means of acquiring spiritual peace. And some of them choose a spiritual feat and monasticism, preferring a vital monastery cell life. In the ordinary sense, the monk is a monk, a hermit, a blackhorn. But in the Orthodox tradition it is a person who only takes monasticism. He is dressed like a monk, but he can live outside the monastery walls and has not yet given a monastic vow.

Degrees in Orthodox monasticism

Monks and nuns during a life pass a number of stages - degrees of monasticism. Those who have not yet chosen the path of monasticism, but who live and work in the monastery are called laborers or laborers. Received a blessing to wear a cassock and a skufeyki and who made a decision to remain forever in the monastery, the worker is called a novice. The rasoforny novice is the one who received the blessing to wear monastic clothes - cassock, hood, kamilavka and rosary.

Then the rassophore novice, who made a firm decision to become a monk, accepts the rasa-morphic monastic vows. The monk is a past ritual of symbolic haircut and adopted the name with a new name in honor of his heavenly patron. The next stage is the adoption of a small schema or a small angelic image. In this case, the monk performs a monastic or mantle vows ceremony, gives vows of renunciation of peace and obedience, changes in the name of the heavenly patron and the blessing of monastic clothes. The last rite of acceptance of the great angelic image or great schema includes the repetition of the same vows, symbolic haircut and another change of the name of the heavenly patron.

Monasticism as a degree of monasticism

"Enoch" is a word that was formed from the Old Russian "yin", which means "one, solitary, hermit". So in Russia they called monks-blacks. At present, in monastic monastic monasteries, monks are not called monks who have already accepted a small or great schema, and rassofornye are wearing robe, those who are just waiting for tonsure, the final acceptance of all vows and naming by a new name. Thus, here the monk is like a novice monk, and monasticism is the preparatory stage before the mantle vows. According to the canons of the Orthodox Church, tonsured monks can be performed only with the blessing of the bishop. In the women's monasteries, many nuns spend their whole lives in this monastic life, not accepting the following.

Vow of the monk

A person who takes monastic vows gives special vows - obligations to God to fulfill for life and observe the Law of God, church canons and monastic rules for life. After passing the tests - temptations - begin the degree of monasticism. They differ not only in monastic robes and different rules of behavior, but also in the number of vows that are given before God.

The three basic ones, which are given by the ryasophore novices when entering the monastic degree, are vows of obedience, nondegree and chastity.

The basis of monasticism, the great virtue is obedience. The monk must renounce his thoughts and will and act only on the instructions of the spiritual father. The vow of nondegree is the obligation to live according to God's commandments, to endure all the difficulties of monastic life, and to renounce all earthly goods. Chastity, as the fullness of wisdom, is not only the overcoming of carnal impulses, but also spiritual perfection, their attainment, the constant stay of the mind and heart in God. A chaste soul must be for the sake of pure prayer and a continuous presence in Divine love.

A person who has embarked on the path of monasticism must give up all worldly for the development of the spiritual life force, fulfill the will of the mentors. Renunciation of the old name, abandonment of property, voluntary martyrdom, life in hardship and hard work away from the world - all these indispensable conditions must be observed by the monk for the further acceptance of the angelic images.