A Practical Handbook for Priestly Ministry

A Practical Handbook

for Priestly Ministry

Printed with the blessing of His Eminence,

Metropolitan Hilarion First Hierarch

of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

A Practical Handbook for Priestly Ministry

© 2019 Holy Trinity Monastery

An imprint of

ISBN: 978-1-942699-24-8 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-942699-25-5 (ePub)

ISBN: 978-1-942699-26-2 (Mobipocket)

Library of Congress Control Number 2019939241

Cover Design: James Bozeman.

New Testament Scripture passages are taken from the New King James Version.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

Psalms taken from A Psalter for Prayer, trans. David Mitchell James

(Jordanville, N.Y.: Holy Trinity Publications, 2011).

Old Testament and Deuterocanonical passages taken from the Orthodox Study Bible.

Copyright © 2008 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Used by permission.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Part I: The Instruction of the Parishioners

Chapter 1: Instruction of the People by the Word

Chapter 2: What and Where the Priest Should Teach

Chapter 3: How the Priest Should Teach

Chapter 4: On Instruction by Deed

Part II: Ministering the Sacraments

Chapter 5: On the Sacraments in General

Chapter 6: Some Important Aspects of Each Sacrament in Particular, Beginning with the Sacrament of Holy Baptism

Chapter 7: The Sacrament of Chrismation

Chapter 8: The Sacrament of Confession

Chapter 9: The Sacrament of Holy Communion and Some General Remarks Regarding the Serving of the Divine Liturgy

Chapter 10: The Sacrament of Matrimony

Chapter 11: The Sacrament of Unction

Part III: On Prayer

Chapter 12: On Prayer in General

Chapter 13: How to Pray in Spirit and Truth

Chapter 14: Prayer as the Special Duty of Priests

Chapter 15: Some Thoughts on Church Style and Its Effect on the Prayer of the Congregation

Concluding Thoughts

Notes

Subject Index

Scripture Index

FOREWORD

In 2011 Holy Trinity Publications published A Practical Handbook for Divine Services that provides the clergy and those who serve with them straightforward and detailed guidance for church services, drawing from a number of Russian Orthodox sources.

We are now pleased to offer a complimentary volume A Practical Handbook for Priestly Ministry that focuses on pastoral aesthetics and culture. It emphasizes the internal formation and preparation that is an essential prerequisite of the work of the priest.

This book is a compilation of two Russian works. The first is an eighteenth-century classic in its field, The Treatise on the Duty of Parish Priests, authored by Bishop George (Konissky) of Mogilev (1717–1795) with the assistance of Bishop Parthenius (Sopkovsky) of Smolensk (1717–1795). It was translated into English by Rev. R.W. Blackmore (1791–1882) in 1833 and published as part of a larger volume entitled The Doctrine of the Russian Church in 1845. Rev. Blackmore, a graduate of Merton College, Oxford, was an Anglican clergyman who served as chaplain to the Russia Company in Kronstadt. With regard to the Duty of Parish Priests Blackmore wrote in his preface that it has been adopted by the whole Russian Church…and all candidates for holy orders in the Diocesan Seminaries and in the Superior Spiritual Academies are required to have read it, and to shew their acquaintance with its contents, previously to being ordained.

The second source of this compilation is Pastoral Aesthetics by Archpriest Alexis Danilovich Ostapov (1930–1975). Fr Alexis, a pupil of His Holiness Patriarch Alexei I of Moscow and All Russia, held a Doctorate of Theology from the Moscow Theological Seminary where he subsequently taught Pastoral Theology, Russian Church History, and Church Archeology as well as other subjects. This text was translated into English by Anthony Williams as part of his studies at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary.

Drawing from both of these seminal works, Holy Trinity Publications presents a newly edited and revised handbook suitable for the twenty-first-century pastor and aspirant to the priesthood. This work is replete with detailed quotations from the Holy Fathers and the Canons, together with over one hundred references to Holy Scriptures, covering every conceivable pastoral issue. While we have tried with the greatest care to provide full citations for the scriptural quotations throughout the text, we have not always been able to do the same for those from the Fathers.

We sincerely pray that with its emphasis on the formation of the personality of the ideal Christian pastor—his prayer life, social skills, personal culture, and ability to serve beautifully and with compunction—any priest or aspirant to the priesthood will find this a treasure to be read and reread countless times for instruction and edification. More broadly we hope it will also inspire all, both men and women, who serve in any capacity in the Church to live the kind of life which is at the foundation of all authentic spiritual service.

Holy Trinity Monastery

Paschaltide 2019

PREFACE

There are four duties that priests are bound diligently to fulfill. The first is to preach God’s word, without missing a single opportunity, and so to bring their parishioners to the knowledge of the faith and to a good Christian life, according to the injunction of the holy Apostle Paul: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching (2 Tim 4:2).

The second is to lead lives in harmony with the doctrine of the Gospel and so to make themselves examples of holiness, For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict (Titus 1:7–9).

The third is to minister God’s Sacraments, the sole end and aim of which is to confirm those who believe in Christ in faith and in holy living, and so to perfect them for everlasting life and for the kingdom of heaven.

The fourth is to pray to God, which is so profitable and needful to preachers and stewards of the mysteries that without it they can neither preach God’s word, nor live holy lives themselves, nor perform the mysteries in a God-pleasing manner. Therefore, according to the apostle’s command: Pray without ceasing. They should pray to our gracious God day and night with all their souls and entreat Him to give them the Holy Spirit. For He alone makes men priests and guides them in the performance of their duties into all truth (see John 16:13) and makes them workmen that need not to be ashamed. The Holy Spirit is only given as a result of earnest prayer.

The apostle has clearly shown how important these four duties are by extolling the New Testament above the Old, calling the preaching of the Gospel and stewardship of the mysteries of God the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of righteousness, and the ministry of reconciliation (see 2 Cor 3:8–9 and 5:18). And everyone can see and understand what skill, wisdom, caution, great piety, faith, and energy—together with the assisting grace of the Holy Spirit—this ministry requires in its stewards, especially considering the commandments regarding the priesthood in the Scriptures and the nature of the Mysteries themselves.

In the Old Testament the Lord through Moses strictly commanded the Priests to be attentive to their ministry: Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful for the holy things of the children of Israel, in what is sanctified to Me, so as not to defile My holy name: I am the Lord (Lev 22:2). You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My holy things: I am the Lord (Lev 19:30).

But if the ministry of the Old Testament needed such strict attention and deep awe in the sight of the Lord, how much more are they needed in the ministry of the New Testament, in the preaching of the Gospel, in the stewardship of the Mysteries, in the ministry of the Spirit, of righteousness, and of reconciliation! The strictest attention and the deepest awe, joined with love and thankfulness, are required of priests.

For if in the priesthood delivered through Moses to Aaron and his sons every disobedience and transgression was punished (see Heb 2:2), how much stricter must the punishment and judgment be for any transgression or neglect in the ministry that has been delivered to the Apostles and to each of us, their successors, by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? Our Saviour has warned us in His own words when He says that He will cut [the evil and careless servant] in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites (Matt 24:51).

Therefore, as a priest you must realize that these duties are of no little weight and so require no little skill, wisdom, attention, and piety. The Apostle Paul by his own example at once teaches you this truth and incites you to act on it. For he, while fulfilling the ministry of the Word and Sacraments entrusted to him, writes of himself to the Corinthians thus: I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling (1 Cor 2:3). And in another place he mentions the fear and reverence required for the ministry: Let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:28–29). Therefore, you must be filled with godly reverence and armed with many skills.

However, we see some priests who do not know their duties, or do not even care to know them, and so give no heed to their calling, but live in great disorder. Lest such be left to the end in their ignorance and carelessness, and so fall under that severity of God’s judgment that punished unworthy priests such as Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, and Hophni and Phineas, sons of Eli, in the Old Testament, this book is intended to awaken and instruct such priests. Also, we hope that they who are considering becoming priests, or lesser clergy of the Church, may come to know the greatness and responsibility of the ministry of the New Testament.

Therefore, you priests who bear the name of shepherds receive these instructions with the same zeal with which they were written for you and use them to your profit and that of the souls committed to you. May you not be called the light of the world in vain, may you not become blind leaders of the blind, may you not go yourselves headlong, and leading others, into the pit of destruction from where there shall be no deliverance forever.

May God grant you the spirit of wisdom and revelation perfectly to know your duty and to fulfill it. May He enlighten the eyes of your heart to see the riches of the glory prepared for you if you are vigilant to walk in way worthy of your calling and to see what fierce torments, on the other hand, await you if neglect your calling, for if you do, a multitude of souls for whom Christ died will be dragged down together with you into the pit of everlasting perdition. But may He, our Lord Jesus Christ, by His almighty hand save you all from this, deliver you from every evil work, and preserve you for His heavenly kingdom.

INTRODUCTION

The priesthood is a ministry in the New Testament given by Christ to the Apostles and to their successors, consisting in the preaching of the word of God and the ministration of the Sacraments, by these means sinners are reconciled to God and perfected in faith and in holy living unto the attainment of everlasting life, to His glory. Every word of this definition is proved from Holy Scripture in the following chapters.

The priesthood, as has been said, was given in the New Testament by Christ Himself to His disciples and their successors. When He sent the Apostles into the world, He gave them this commandment: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you (Matt 28:19–20). That it was not only to the Apostles but also to their successors, the bishops and priests, that Christ delivered this ministry is evident from His promise, which follows in the same place: And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The Apostles themselves did not live to the end of the world, but from the time of the Apostles and even to the end of the world, their successors—the bishops and priests—continue in an uninterrupted succession.

This the Apostle Paul confirms, when he says that Christ Who ascended on high … gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some teachers (Eph 4:8–11).

The goal and purpose of the priesthood is this—that mankind, who by sin had fallen away from God, and subjected themselves to everlasting punishment, may be brought back again to God’s grace and after having been brought back may be so perfected in faith and holy living that being united with Christ, as members with their head, in one body, they may be found worthy to receive eternal life to the glory of the blessed Trinity, the Author, and Accomplisher of our salvation.

With respect to this purpose of priesthood, St Paul calls his apostleship the ministry of reconciliation and the preaching of the word of reconciliation, that is, of the bringing of sinners to the grace of God (see 2 Cor 5:18–19). And in his Epistle to the Ephesians, after having shown that pastors and teachers are given by Christ, he points out the goal of their ministry: for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:12–13).

This makes it sufficiently clear that the priesthood is a great calling, for it was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, as a means through which men could attain the greatest blessedness—everlasting salvation. The priesthood is further dignified by the titles that the word of God gives to priests. It calls them messengers of the Lord of Almighty (Mal 2:7), Angels of the Churches (Rev 2:1, 8, 12, 18 and 3:1, 7, 14), the light of the world (Matt 5:14, 16), the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13), shepherds of the flock of God (1 Pet 5:2), God’s fellow workers and master builders, God’s building (1 Cor 3:9, 10), the friends of Christ (John 15:15).

St John Chrysostom, in his second homily on 2 Timothy, says: Do you not know what a priest is? He is the Angel of the Lord, for when he speaks according to his office, if you despise him, you despise not him, but the bishop who ordained him, and God.

St Gregory the Theologian, in his second oration, says: The priest, when he ministers, stands with the angels, glorifies God with the archangels, lifts up sacrifice to the heavenly altar on high, is joined as a priest with Christ, renews our corrupt dust, restores the image of God. In other words, he brings fallen man by baptism to regeneration.

St John Chrysostom, in his third book On the Priesthood (ch. IV), also says: The priesthood is conferred on earth, but it has the rank of heavenly things. And this is said with the strictest truth, for it was not a man, nor an angel, nor an archangel, nor any other created power, but the Comforter Himself, the Holy Spirit, Who appointed this order and taught men, while still living in the flesh, to imitate the ministry of angels.

But since the priesthood is of such great dignity, it is no slight labor but a very great one, as will become further obvious in a detailed description of its duties. Indeed, the very names that Holy Scripture uses to designate the labors, the watching, the patience, and the exercises required of a pastor, suffice to let every one know this.

Chrysostom, in his fifteenth homily on 1 Timothy, writes:

The Law commands not to muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. Can you not see what labors it requires from the teacher? For there is no labor, no, not one, like this labor. Let us not think only of the hire, but of that qualification that is joined with the command, for it goes on: The laborer is worthy of his hire. And so, if any one gives himself up to indulgence and ease, he is not worthy. If he is not the ox that treads, if he stands not against frost and briars, and does not plough the land or work it without resting until he gathers the harvest into the granary: he is not worthy.

Chrysostom, in his second book On the Priesthood (ch. IV) and in his tenth moral on 1 Thessalonians and his third moral on the Acts of the Apostles, enlarges on the difficulties and dangers of the pastoral calling. And St Gregory the Great, writing of the burden of the priesthood, says that for a Priest to know how to rule well the flock committed to him, is a science above all sciences, and an art above all arts.

The dignity of the priesthood and the difficulties of the pastoral office can result in very grave dangers, for the higher and more rewarding the order—if well ministered—the more vile and wretched must be any misconduct in it, especially sloth, and the more doomed to the fiercest torments (see Matt 24:48–51; 25:30).

The Apostle Paul when committing this fearful and dangerous dignity to his successors charged and instructed them to keep it before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom (2 Tim 4:1) and before the elect angels, the zealous executors of God’s judgment (see 1 Tim 5:21).

His strong sense of the dangers of the priesthood moved St John Chrysostom to utter the fearful words found in his Homilies: I do not think there are many priests who will be saved, but the greater part will perish (third moral on Acts).

This dignity, difficulty, and danger of the priesthood should be constantly before the eyes of all who aspire to it, so that they may first examine themselves to see whether they can bear such a burden, whether they have the necessary spiritual powers and qualifications, such as understanding, learning, skill in speech, good morals, a blameless and exemplary life, all of which the apostle requires in a priest (1 Tim 3 and Titus 1). For even priests who possess, such virtues become guilty of sin if they are unwilling to serve God and their neighbor, especially when called to do so, but those who do not possess these virtues, not only should they avoid taking upon themselves this calling, like the false prophets, but even if they are called, even if they are pressed to enter it, they should refuse.¹

But above all let him who would approach the priesthood ask his own heart, whether it feels Christ saying to him Do you love me? …. Feed My lambs and whether it answers this question with St Peter without guile, Lord, You know that I love you (John 21:15). He should ask himself if he goes into the sheepfold for the sake of the sheep that they may have life or for his own gain that he may rob, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). If with the former purpose he enters in by the door, he is a shepherd, but if with the latter he climbs in some other way and is a thief and a robber.

The duties of the priesthood consist principally in teaching, living a holy life, ministering the Sacraments, and praying for the people.

Teaching and ministering the Sacraments are clearly pointed out by the apostle, when he says, Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1). Living a holy life is as Christ Himself points out: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works… (Matt 5:16). Praying for people is a duty that is enjoined by the Lord in the Old Testament (Lev 16:34 and Joel 2:17), by the Apostle Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy 2:1–2, by St James (see James 5:14), and in Acts 6:4. But of this we shall speak more at length in Part IV.

PART I

The Instruction of the Parishioners