All-night singing. All-night vigil. Liturgy takes place at least every Sunday

Orthodox apps for smartphones: an overview of 10 apps for those who want to keep up with the Orthodox world, even using a modern gadget.

Smartphone Apps

1. Bible

The Synodal Translation and Interpretation of the Bible - exists for both iPhones and Android - is searched for by request "Synodal Translation".

2. Requirements to the temple and monastery

The sensational application that offers to send treasuries to the Verkhnepechersky Male Monastery via a mobile phone was distinguished by a more convenient functionality and a detailed description of what this or that service of the Russian Church is.

So the daily simple magpie is designated as "a daily prayer commemoration for forty days at the Liturgy."

The application has in-app purchases - payment for services, the payment amount is debited from the balance of the card linked to the App Store. Upon completion of the request, a notification is received.

The application is made soundly, as detailed and understandable as possible. Disputes about the ethical side of the issue, of course, could not be avoided, but there are those who wish to order an application and a prayer petition without leaving their homes.

3.i Orthodox calendar

Orthodox Calendar - the paid application completely pays for itself. The calendar contains readings for each day of the year, the thoughts of Theophan the Recluse, the calculation of Easter until 2100.

The only concern is the traditional huge font, which makes it difficult to read the messages, and not the most successful design, which in some cases suggests considering dark blue letters on a dark blue background.

4. Bible Quiz 3D

Bible Quiz puzzles the user with some really interesting Bible-based questions.

As one of the 4 missionary heroes in the game, you can amaze with your knowledge of Scripture and convert non-believers to Christianity.

Unfortunately, the application itself does not know the correct answers to its questions, divides Christianity into "Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Judaism", and also suggests strengthening one's faith with the help of angel tokens (of course, paid ones).

5. A culinary book of Orthodox posts

The cookbook application, in addition to lean cuisine, invites users to familiarize themselves with recipes for delicious and healthy food from different countries of the world and even a method of making tempting cocktails, but it is practically the only one of its kind for iOS owners.

The developers have generously provided the app with in-app purchases: for each lean recipe, the hostess will have to pay $ 1.

The very first recipe was distinguished by an abundance of rare ingredients and time-consuming preparation methods. Obviously, the selection is not very good, but the App Store offers few alternatives.

From the pros - informative pages about the history of each post.

6. Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate

The electronic version was recently presented by the "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate" - the official publication of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In the app, you can purchase a standalone edition or an annual subscription. The subscription is renewed automatically.

In general, the application is an electronic version of the magazine with the most thought-out design and traditionally interesting content.

7.iBook on the Church

Believers can familiarize themselves with a guide to an Orthodox church in the iBook about the Church.

In addition to free basic information, those who wish can delve deeper into the basics of Orthodox culture with in-app purchases.

For an additional fee, you can see more than 300 illustrations of icons with descriptions and prayers to them, an interactive map with marked locations of temples and churches with photographs and a short history, as well as a universal calendar where you can see the dates of fasting, holidays and name days.

Unfortunately, judging by the map, the application is updated quite rarely, but it still has practical value, especially for neophytes.

Those who are asking questions "why put candles in front of icons?" and "why do women cover their heads in the temple?" I have known for a long time, you can abstain from the iBook on the Church.

8. Orthodox prayer book

The Orthodox Prayer Book, which contains over 400 prayers, is available for iOS users for free.

The application includes morning and evening prayer rules, prayers to the saints, prayers from divine services, akathists and canons to Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos, Guardian Angel and many other prayers, as well as videos of services.

Thanks to the believable sound of turning pages and the "antique" design, you can forget for a second that all prayers are in electronic form.

They are distributed, including thematically "for all occasions."

From in-app purchases - only offers to make charitable donations, no godly angel tokens, unlike the quiz, are not expected.

9.iIcons

The program features images of icons with descriptions, classified by iconography, centers and schools and chronology.

The database is periodically updated with new sections.

Unfortunately, users point out that the application can be downloaded only out of respect for the holy images. Photographed with pirate quality in movie theaters, icons are often not displayed in full or take up too much screen space.

The icons themselves in the application are quite small and the application is also hardly suitable for studying iconography.

Nevertheless, the project is developing and leaves hopes for a bright future.

Reading the morning rule from a smartphone in the subway, looking at lean recipes in an electronic cookbook, ordering treasures online, translating words from Church Slavonic, listening to Orthodox radio - everything a layman needs is already offered by mobile app developers. Priests also use devices; few people today will be surprised by a father with a tablet in his hands during a service. Convenient and accessible, no need to carry service books and akathists with you.

From a rather impressive list offered by the App Store and Google Play, we have selected the most prominent representatives of Orthodox mobile applications.

Bible

This is the most common type of Orthodox application. Most Popular:

• Bible. Synodal translation. "Contains the text of the books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in modern Russian language."

• Orthodox literature: Bible, Gospel, Orthodox Prayer Book. According to the developers, this application contains the most complete collection of Orthodox literature, the library is constantly updated, dubbed by clergymen, church choirs, and professional announcers.

• Orthodox Bible + Prayer Book. Feature: "There is a function of copying text fragments and creating notes with subsequent export (social networks, e-mail)."

• Mobile Church: The Bible. As stated by the developer, "the uniqueness of the application is that it is created according to your ideas and suggestions, and that is why it will be closer and more useful to you than others."

Orthodox calendars

• Orthodox calendar. “Created with the support of the Pravoslavie.ru portal.

Displays the calendar in the new and old style with the indication of Easter, Great and Twelve Great Feasts, and Fast Days.

It is possible to view the prayers and icons of the saints commemorated on the specified day. "

Updated, convenient, high-quality calendar.

Prayer books

• Orthodox prayer book. “The application contains prayers for the morning and for the future sleep, as well as the follow-up to Holy Communion in Russian and Old Church Slavonic. Created with the participation of the Pravoslavie.ru portal ”.

• Audio-prayer book: Orthodox prayers, the Bible, the Gospel. Only morning prayers and selected troparia are free.

• Audio Prayer Book. ... Only morning prayers are free

• Church Slavonic Dictionary

Orthodox Library: Books and Media

• Orthodox library for everyone. The developer is the missionary department of the Moscow diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. A nice application with a fairly large archive of free literature (more than 1800 books), there are audiobooks.

• Foma Orthodox magazine is an interactive monthly magazine for mobile devices. The app is free.

• Of the new products, we can mention the Orthodox the media library "Tradition", which was developed on donations from the visitors of the portal "Tradition.ru".

Orthodox radio

• Radio Vera is one of the most popular Orthodox radio stations with round-the-clock broadcasting. In the application, in addition to the live broadcast, you can listen to the church calendar and the interpretation of the Gospel readings for every day.

• Radio "Radonezh". It is possible to listen to the broadcast online.

For kids

• Bible for Kids - a game based on Bible stories. A colorful and educational quiz game.

• Children's Bible - only text, no pictures.

The application for submitting notes to the Ascension Pechersky Monastery iReby (), which once stirred up the Orthodox community, is now not being updated, the version for Android has not been launched. There was an attempt to raise funds through crowdfunding for the Disappearing Shrines application (a project of the Rublev.ru portal), which, unfortunately, was not crowned with success. Perhaps the demand for Orthodox mobile applications is quite conservative, but most likely, most Orthodox developers simply do not have the extra hundreds of thousands of rubles to develop a more or less high-quality and interesting application. In addition, it is unlikely to ever pay off; standard monetization models do not take root well here. We are waiting for one of the Orthodox developers to repeat the success of the most popular mobile application for Muslims Muslim Pro with a multi-million audience.

The Orthodox calendar is essential for believers, even for those who have long venerated religion, go to church and know many Christian holidays. It is important for observing multi-day and short-term fasts and honoring church events.

The Orthodox calendar is characterized by the variability of many dates, called transitional dates, which are not easy to remember.

Features of the church calendar for 2019

You can download the calendar of posts for 2019 on your smartphone with Android OS. The document contains a complete list of holidays and memorial days. The application is illustrated with icons, the lives of saints, kontakion and troparia are written in memory.

The program includes the full amount of information necessary for every believer, as well as Gospel readings and days of remembrance of the dead. Here you will find information on dry eating, oil-free meals, and abstaining days. Information about the posts is collected on the basis of ancient monastic traditions.

The interface in the application is simple and intuitive - any information can be found in a couple of clicks. When you select the desired day of the month, the screen will display information about the features of the marked day, which correspond to the canons of the Russian Church.

The Orthodox calendar for 2019 will help you keep abreast of any church events planned for the current year.

Screenshots

Our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to constantly watch and pray. Trying to fulfill this commandment, Christians from ancient times on especially memorable days performed a divine service that lasted all night, from evening to morning, and therefore received the name all-night vigil ... Its main parts are great vespers and matins .

At the very beginning of the Great Vespers, the life of our first parents Adam and Eve in Paradise is remembered. Being in this most beautiful place, enjoying the beauty of Paradise and the greatness of the world created by God, our forefathers enthusiastically brought their prayers and thanksgiving to God. At that blissful time, people talked with God face to face, because they were sinless.

This is symbolized by the Royal Doors open before the start of the service ... In remembrance of the very beginning of the creation of the world by God (when the Spirit of God, like censer smoke, enveloped the primordial earth, reviving the still unorganized world) the priest censes the altar and then, giving glory to the Life-Giving Trinity, comes out of the altar and censes the temple , which symbolizes the time when God himself was close to people. The choir sings selected verses of the 103rd psalm depicting a magnificent picture of the world and glorifying the Creator: “Bless, my soul, the Lord. Blessed art thou, Lord! .. As for the magnification of Thy deeds, O Lord, I created all wisdom ecu ... ".

God gave man freedom to freely choose only good. But the man listened to the envious and deceitful advice of the devil and refused to communicate with God. After that, man could no longer remain in Paradise. God expelled him from Paradise and settled him on an impoverished and impoverished land. However, the merciful Creator, out of His ineffable love, reassured man with the Savior's promise. The mournful history of mankind on earth began - the story of repentance, correction, and the gradual return of lost children to their Heavenly Father.

The Church reminds us of these events with the further course of the service. The Royal Doors are closed ... Before them, as before a closed Paradise, the deacon recites the great litany (litany - in Greek: diligence, diligent prayer), in which God's help is asked for a sinful person in the various needs of his earthly life. After each petition of the litany the choir sings on behalf of the worshipers: "Lord have mercy". Then the choir sings selected verses from the 1st kathisma (Kathisma refers to the parts into which the Psalter is divided), speaking about the life of the righteous and unrighteous: "Blessed is the man who does not go to the counsel of the wicked ... and the path of the wicked will perish ... Work the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling ... Blessed ecu hoping Nan ..."(Ps. 1, 1, 6; 2, 11-12).

The Old Testament righteous lived in hope for the promised Savior. The Old Testament divine service with its sacrifices was a reminder of God's promise, a prototype of the future great Sacrifice, when the Son of God Himself, being God, becomes a Man, comes to people to save them, and by His righteous life, His victory over death, His Ascension to God the Father will reconcile man with God and will become, as it were, a new Progenitor for fallen mankind, who wants to regain communion with the Creator.

The continuation of the all-night vigil speaks of these hopes. The choir sings psalm verses full of mournful supplication: "Lord, cry out to you, hear me ..."(Psalm 140). Deacon's censing at this time, means the sacrifices that were offered in the Old Testament, as well as our prayers to God. The verses of the Psalter begin to alternate with stichera - chants dedicated to the holiday. When singing the last stichera - a dogmatist talking about the mystery of the Savior's Incarnation - clergymen leave the side doors of the altar with a censer and enter it through the Royal Doors ... The priest's exit from the altar symbolizes the descent of the Son of God to earth to save people, His sermon, free suffering, death on the cross and the descent into hell, and the entrance to the altar symbolizes the resurrection and ascension to Heaven.

Followed by chanting prokeem and sometimes reading from scripture , then - two litanies... On major holidays, there is lithium - fervent prayer performed outside the church or in its vestibule. Exit of the clergy from the altar symbolizes the expulsion of Adam from Paradise and expresses our humility before God and the desire for the Heavenly gates and the blessings of God to open for us.

At the end of the lithium the choir sings a few stichera and a prayer "Now let go of Thy servant, Master ..." (prayer of Saint Simeon the God-receiver). After prayer "Our Father" Arkhangelsk greeting "Virgin Mary, rejoice" the Mother of God is glorified or, with a special chant, the celebrated event. (On holidays there is a consecration of bread, wheat, wine and oil). Vespers ends with Psalm 33 and the priest's blessing. The last prayers of Vespers bring us to the New Testament events remembered at Matins, the second part of the All-Night Vigil.

Matins begins with angelic praise, sung at the Nativity of the Savior: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will in men" (Luke 2:14). Then read six psalms - six selected psalms, depicting both the joyful state of the human soul, with which the mercy of the Lord, and the sorrow of the soul, burdened with sins and departed from God.

After reading three psalms the priest leaves the altar and, standing in front of the closed Royal Doors, reads 12 morning prayers asking for God's blessing for the day ahead. After the Six Psalms and the Great Litany the deacon solemnly proclaims: "God is the Lord and appear to us, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" and a few more selected verses of the 117th Psalm - and the chorus repeats after each of them the first verse, announcing to us the appearance of the Savior. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14). Psalm verses "Confess the Lord ..." chanted "God the Lord ...", depict the suffering earthly life of the Savior.

Further the troparion of the holiday is sung and the kathisma from the Psalter are recited ... The Psalter is divided into 20 sections, which are called kathismas. Kathisma is divided into three parts ("Glory"), after reading each of which a small doxology is sung (hence the name - "Glory").

Kathisma in translation from Greek means "sitting"; during the reading of kathisma, one can sit, but during the small doxology, one must stand up .

At the all-night vigil, two kathismas are read, and after each there is a small litany and sedals - short prayers timed to coincide with the reading of the kathisma.

After reading the kathisma, the most solemn part of the all-night vigil begins - polyeleos, which means "great mercy" or "an abundance of oil, oil." When all the lamps are lit the priest comes from the altar like an angel who came down from the cave of the Holy Sepulcher to proclaim the Resurrection, and burns the incense of the temple ... Censing, which accompanies many other important parts of the divine service, also marks our prayers, directed to God with attention and zeal, and the grace of the Holy Spirit that overshadows us. When a priest censors believers, they respond by bowing their heads.

The choir sings verses of the 134th and 135th psalms: "Praise the name of the Lord, praise, servant of the Lord ...", and on Sunday also Sunday troparia about the appearance to the myrrh-bearing wives (disciples of the Lord) of the Angels, who announced the Resurrection of the Savior from the dead: "It's too early for the myrrh-bearers to flow to your sepulcher, Savior, weeping ...". And very early, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb at the rising of the sun, and they said among themselves: Who will roll us the stone from the door of the tomb? And, looking, they see that the stone has been rolled away; and he was very large. And going into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe; and were horrified. But he says to them: do not be dismayed. You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene crucified; He is resurrected, He is not here. This is the place where He was laid (Mark 16: 2-6).

On holidays and days of remembrance of saints a glorification of a celebrated event or saint is sung.

After singing the prescribed psalms and troparia or exaltation a passage from the Gospel is read related to the events being remembered ... After reading the Gospel on Sundays, it happens singing of a solemn song by all believers "Having seen the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the Holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless ..."

The gospel relies on a lectern for worship and kissing by believers in memory of the appearance of the Risen Teacher to the disciples and their joyful and reverent worship of the Savior. When they went to tell His disciples, and behold, Jesus met them and said: Rejoice! And they, coming near, grabbed His feet and worshiped Him (Matt. 28: 9). On holidays, a festive icon is brought out.

While kissing the Gospel or a festive icon the priest anoints the faithful with the holy oil at Vespers as a sign of God's mercy; also, if there was lithium, blessed pieces of bread and wine are distributed to believers in memory of the giver of all blessings God for the grace-filled strengthening of bodily and mental strength (this was especially necessary in ancient times, when longer services required reinforcement of strength for unremitting attention).

Followed by reading the canons - prayers dedicated to the glorification of God, the Most Holy Theotokos, the saints of God, or individual events of sacred and church history. Each canon consists of separate parts called songs. After the 8th canon of canons, the song of praise of the Most Holy Theotokos is sung "My soul magnifies the Lord ..." with a chorus: "The most honest Cherubim and the most glorious without comparison Seraphim ...", which says that the Mother of God surpasses even the holy Angels in honor and glory. The deacon, while singing "The Most Honest ...", burns the incense of the church.

After the canons in the praising psalms and subsequent stichera, the faithful are called to praise the love of God for man. After the exclamation of the priest: "Glory to Thee, who showed us the light" (visible light, since in ancient times matins ended at dawn, and the Spiritual Light of the Savior), the choir sings great praises - an ancient hymn praising God for all His gifts and mercies. This hymn, composed of the deep and inspired words of the Old and New Testaments, was composed even during the time of the first Christians, who glorified the Divinity of the Savior with this hymn and defended the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from pagan slander. It is already mentioned in the report on Christians to the Roman emperor Trajan (AD 98-117), as well as in the writings of ancient Christian authors. Even in the ancient work "Apostolic Decrees" there is a morning prayer, not much different from the great doxology.

This hymn, breathing with the simplicity and spiritual grandeur of the first Christian times, ends, singing "Trisagion" - one of the most frequent and important prayers of Christian worship (according to legend, the first part of it - the angelic doxology “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal” - was heard by a Christian boy ascended to Heaven during the earthquake in Constantinople in the 5th century. ).

On the feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14/27) and the Origin of the Honorable Trees of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord (August 1/14), as well as on the 3rd Sunday of Great Lent (the Week of the Cross) during the "Trisagion", the solemn carrying out of the holy cross by the clergy takes place and worship him.

According to the Trisvyat, the Sunday troparion or the troparion of the holiday is sung.

After two litanies, augmented and supplicatory, and dismissal, the choir asks God to grant many years to the ruling bishop and all Orthodox Christians. After Matins, the 1st hour is read - a short service related to the content of the beginning of a new day.

From the book All-Night Vigil. Divine Liturgy. Sacraments of the Church "by the publishing house of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra

In the modern world, faith has lost its primary significance for humanity, so many people have no idea what services are held in temples, what they consist of, and so on. It is necessary to correct this state of affairs and to understand what an all-night vigil is or, as it is also called, an “all-night vigil”.

What is an all-night vigil in a church?

Among all the services that are performed in the Orthodox Church, one can single out the all-night vigil, which is held before the great holidays and Sundays and lasts from evening until sunrise. Depending on the time zone, it can start at 4-6 pm. In the history of the formation of Christianity, one can find information that sometimes the follow-up of the all-night vigil was performed as a sign of gratitude to the Lord for deliverance from various troubles or victory in wars. The features of this service include the following:

1. After Vespers, the consecration of bread, vegetable oil, wine and wheat may take place. This is due to the fact that these products used to be necessarily eaten by monks before the divine service.
2. The full follow-up of the all-night vigil includes reading passages from the Gospel during Matins and singing a great doxology, where a person expresses his gratitude to the Lord for the day he has lived and asks for help to be protected from sins.
3. During the service, believers are anointed with oil.

What is the difference between Vespers and the All-Night Vigil?

Many believers ask this question, but in reality everything is simple, the all-night vigil combines two services: Vespers and Matins. It is worth noting that Vespers before the holidays is not ordinary, but great. Describing the features of the all-night vigil, it is important to mention that during this service many works are performed by the church choir, which adds special beauty to the action.

What services does the all-night vigil consist of?

The service is traditionally held on the eve of church holidays and Sundays. The composition of the all-night vigil is as follows: Vespers, Matins and the first hour. There are times when a divine service can begin with Great Compline, which will turn into Vespers. Such a scheme is necessarily used before Christmas and Epiphany. In some churches, after the completion of the service, the clergy conduct confessions, where people can repent of their sins.

How is the all-night vigil going?

Such a worship service is able to free the soul of a person from negativity and bad thoughts, and also to dispose one to accept blessed gifts. The All-Night Service symbolizes the history of the Old and New Testaments. There is a specific structure for conducting divine services.

1. The beginning of the all-night vigil is called the Great Vespers, which serves as a depiction of the main Old Testament stories. The Royal Doors are opened and the creation of the world is signified.
2. After that, a psalm is sung that glorifies the wisdom of the Creator. During this, the priest censes the church and the believers.
3. After the closure of the Royal Doors, which symbolizes the commission of the first sin by Adam and Eve, the prayer is performed in front of them. The verses “Lord, having called to You, hear me” are sung, which remind people of their plight after the Fall.
4. A stichera dedicated to the Mother of God is read, and during this the priest leaves the northern doors of the altar and enters the Royal Doors, which personifies the appearance of the Savior.
5. The structure of the all-night vigil implies the transition to matins, which signifies the arrival of the time of the New Testament. Of particular importance is the polyeleos - the solemn part of the divine service, during which the mercy of the Lord for the gift of the Savior is glorified.
6. The Gospel dedicated to the holiday is solemnly read and the canon is fulfilled.

How long is the all-night vigil?

In the modern world, such a service usually lasts about 2-3 hours. Such a reduction is most likely due to the fact that not all people can withstand a long service in the church. Finding out how long the all-night vigil lasts in the church, it is worth pointing out that earlier this service lasted longer, since it began in the evening and was held until the morning. This is where its name originated. The longest all-night vigil that is held in our time is Christmas.