Contents

From the publishers

Preface

Lord’s Prayer

The proposed book by Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) – “The Lord’s Prayer” until quite recently was available, perhaps, only to the monks of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, since the only typewritten copy of this book was kept in the cell of one of the elders of this monastery.

The author of the book, Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov; 1880–1961), an outstanding hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, lived a long, difficult and interesting life, completely devoted to serving God, the Holy Church and the people of God. The Lord destined him to go through the field of life during the years of severe trials that befell our Church and the Fatherland (about his life, see Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1993, Nos. 2–10 “At the turn of two eras,” as well as the book of the same name, published in Moscow in 1994). He had the opportunity to witness and participate in many events of our recent history, to know the bitterness of exile and the joy of regaining his homeland for the second time. He knew the life of the people well, for he was born and raised in a peasant family, but he knew no less well the deeds and thoughts of the powers that be. Even if you just name some of the names of these people, it will become clear how wide the bishop’s social circle was. He met and had conversations with Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky, later Patriarch) and Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), Bishop Feofan (Bistrov), P.N. Wrangel and many, many other outstanding figures. Throughout his life, he collected spiritual wisdom bit by bit in conversations and meetings with “big people” and generously shared this spiritual wealth with the readers of his books.

The creations of Bishop Veniamin, fortunately, have survived to this day, although the whereabouts of many of his works are still unknown. Judging by what has come down to us, he was always attracted by the mystery of holiness. Living faith in God, in the intercession of the Mother of God and the saints breathes in every line of the bishop’s works.

He speaks about lofty, heavenly things simply, sincerely and confidentially.

Bishop Veniamin spent the last years of his life in retirement in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. The old-timers of the monastery still remember his heartfelt sermons, which many listened to with tears of joy and tenderness. The Lord was given by God not only to penetrate into the hidden secrets of the Kingdom of God, but also to tell his listeners and readers about these secrets in an amazingly simple and intelligible way.

Initially published in the form of separate issues of the Pskov-Pechersk Leaves, Metropolitan Benjamin’s wonderful book is being presented to a wide range of readers for the first time in its entirety.

The reason for the daring attempt to write an interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer was a fortuitous circumstance. One person, even of a non-Orthodox confession (but deeply sympathetic to Holy Orthodoxy), observing the modern “Christian” society of different confessions, came to a sad and horrifying fact: people almost do not pray! The whole world is entangled in insoluble questions of various kinds. Everyone is worried and expecting even worse disasters. Everyone is looking for world node resolutions. And they hardly pray to God for help in such great disasters… Moreover, believers of different directions, even those who profess to be openly Christians, still seek resolution of painful issues in the same ways as unbelievers of different levels, that is, by reason, politics, war, agreements, and not by prayer to the Wise One. Even worse, while declaring themselves believers, people in their constant daily life either do not pray at all, or limit themselves to visiting their parish churches on certain holidays (if they still do so).

Some time has come for “empty” faith! Even if they “talk” about God, they do not pray to Him, as if He does not exist in general, and for them in particular. If before they repeated the words of the Apostle James: “Faith without works is dead,” now we have to add: “Faith without prayer is dead.” Prayer disappears from life. And such devastation of the soul led this person into a painful, terrible state: if they don’t pray, then things are bad! Looking for some kind of spiritual outlet that would correspond to the ordinary rules of an ordinary individual, this person decided to publish a book about prayer. To do this, it settled on the Lord’s Prayer. The reasons are clear. Firstly, the authority of this prayer is exceptional: it was given to the world by God Himself, our Savior Jesus Christ. This means you need to pray. Secondly, this prayer is the most common among Christians. Thirdly, it is common to different Churches. And fourthly – and this is the most important thing – in this prayer the Lord pointed out to humanity the content of our prayers – how and what to pray for. No one will dare to object on this issue, for the God-Man Himself gave such and not another prayer. This is how you should pray.

And in order to interest readers in the question of prayer in general, and the Lord’s prayer in particular, this person wanted to preface readers with a booklet of interpretations of the Lord’s Prayer by three main confessions: Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant; so that believers of different confessions can become interested in both the book and prayer. For a similar purpose, this person turned to me, as a representative of the Orthodox Church, with a request to give some authoritative interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer.

We have a brief interpretation of it in the catechism, but this was not enough: we needed a more extensive one that would correspond to the modern state of minds and souls of readers. In our literature there is a special book published by the famous theologian Bishop Theophan the Recluse, where he collected together the interpretations of the famous Church Fathers – John Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian, Maxim the Confessor, etc. But this book is now impossible to get abroad. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) has an interpretation, but it is too sublimely ascetic, beyond the power of an ordinary believer. There is an interpretation in English of John Cassian the Roman (Orthodox), which Bishop Ignatius also used; but his interpretations are also ascetic. That’s why I dared to write down what I had to read and experience. May God help both me and the readers to benefit from this.

Our Father, who art in heaven! Hallowed be the name

Thy  may  come  thy  kingdom  come

Thy will is as it is in heaven and on earth.  Our bread

Give us today our daily needs;  and leave us debts

ours, as we leave our debtor;

and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from

crafty.  For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory

forever. Amen.