Why is smoking considered a sin? Smoking is a sin or not. Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

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Everyone knows that this is an addiction that negatively affects health and life. But this well-known and proven fact is only a kind of "theory" of the human body, but its influence on the spiritual world is rather a matter of faith and righteousness. So, whether smoking is a sin in Orthodoxy, this article will tell.

Church against smoking

Turning to faith in certain life circumstances, a person must understand that he will have to realize and change his usual way of life, and therefore, first of all, get rid of those habits and passions that the church considers sinful.

So, according to the basic canons, smoking is a sin. After all, this is a destructive passion, and it, like any other, prevents you from going along the path of salvation and forgiveness. The Lord created man in his own image and likeness, so that he would have perfection and achieve the main thing - eternal life.

One must always remember that any passion is a "disease" of the soul and is linked to other, no less terrible ailments. And if it firmly takes root there, it will contribute to the formation of other vices and sins, namely:

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manifestation of selfishness (smoking parents, in particular female mothers);
the emergence of a constant feeling of despondency about personal freedom, as in Orthodoxy;
the appearance of the sin of self-justification;
dulling the sense of morality;
forgiving yourself for other weaknesses.

Based on these and other fairly important reasons, one thing can be said for sure - addiction is evil. It destroys health, both physical and moral. The teaching of the saints says that life is given to humanity by God as the greatest gift. And to reduce it with addictions is a terrible sin. One has only to think, because a smoking person harms not only his health, but also the health of others. And it's impossible to justify it.

Priests on smoking

Priests always oppose smoking and say the following about it:

any destructive passion is the result of a combination of human sinful will and demonic forces, the participation of which in the fall of people is very difficult to prove, since their influence is invisible;
this habit makes people slaves in most cases until death, which can be quite quick in view of poor health;
the sin of smoking can be overcome if the will of man and the power of the Lord merge into one;
a person will be above this passion only when he is firmly aware of the harm such a habit brings. After all, as you know, tobacco relaxes the soul, intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys health;
consequences of the morbid state of mind from the influence of smoking - irritability and melancholy;
before you get rid of the sin of smoking, you need to confess, go through the rite of the sacrament of the Holy Mysteries and every day standing to read the Gospel and.

Devil's Gift

This is what is called smoking in Orthodoxy. It is very difficult to part with him, but the one who managed to do this has inner determination, which means that his spiritual path to God will open the main thing - eternal grace.

Few know how the church relates to smoking, you need to accept this knowledge and try to eradicate sin, because it will not lead to good, but will only aggravate all the difficulties of life. The will of a person is strong and unshakable, if it is truthful and aimed at healing the body and soul, in order to get a unique opportunity to get closer to God, absorb his power and turn it into eternal faith.

The Lord is always with you!

Secular medicine has long proven the harm of tobacco use for the human body. Many people believe that smoking is allowed by Orthodoxy, because this is not indicated in the Holy Scriptures. However, they are wrong: the ROC speak negatively about the habit of using tobacco products. Smoking is a sin, a passion that does not allow a person to follow the righteous path to the Heavenly Throne. This habit is the cause of mental illness and distance from divine forgiveness.

Is smoking considered a sin?

Turning to faith, a person must reconsider his view of life and give up addictions that the Church considers sinful. Orthodox people must definitely give up smoking as a sin.

Read about sins:

The Orthodox Church has a negative attitude towards the tradition of smoking

A person who does not deny himself tobacco loses his health, is vulnerable to passions and vices. He becomes incapable of performing works that are for the benefit and in the name of the salvation of the soul. Further, people who smoke are engaged in useless squandering, although they could use this money for alms to temples or orphans.
Tobacco smoke has a tremendous impact on the spiritual component of the personality. Smoking weakens vigilance and makes it easier for passions to take over the mind. Causing addiction, it darkens the mind and leads to a slow and disgusting death from a variety of sores.
The soul, infected by smoking, becomes irritable and melancholy if it does not receive smoke in the allotted time. Smokers imperceptibly become slaves to this terrible sin, despite the fact that every person is born for freedom in Christ the Savior. The one who knows the truth is freed by it, and the divine gift of love is perceived only by those who have managed to throw off the shackles of senseless habits.
Knowing about the colossal harm to health (as noted by manufacturers), people rarely stop before this harmful one. The cigarette provokes oncological diseases, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and brain activity. Today, people are aware of these ailments, but continue to use tobacco, therefore, they commit evil actions that will not allow them to approach the grace of God.
Every reasonable person should understand that smoking is a sin, because it only brings trouble. If you continue to draw in tobacco smoke, the meaning of most prayers aimed at acquiring health disappears. A person who has recently kept a sinful cigarette in his mouth has no right to ask for help from the Supreme Creator. Here a contradiction arises, because Scripture teaches us to partake of the purity and integrity of the worldview.

On a note! Smoking is a sin even on an intuitive level, as it spreads stench, covers the environment with smoke and causes great harm to the body. Tobacco also causes addiction, which is not so easy to get rid of. People often break down when they try to quit smoking, which brings anguish and disbelief into their minds. Returning to an addiction lowers the mood, as the passion is rooted deep.

It is necessary to remember the words of the Apostle Paul, who noted that everything is permissible, but much is harmful and should not have the consciousness of a person.

Decline in morality through smoking

During the time of Peter I, tobacco was not considered a sin, the clergy even supported the tradition. However, with the development of scientific technology, everyone has learned the whole truth about smoking, so they should not turn to past mistakes.

Church says smoking is a sinful addiction

Habit creates a lot of trouble, moving away from the true vision of things.

A person who uses tobacco gradually justifies himself, creating the illusion of freedom and faith that it is easy to get rid of evil. In the soul, pride is becoming more and more aggravated, which pushes people away from confession and communion.
Tobacco addiction provokes drunkenness and gluttony, since in a weak human disposition there is a peculiarity to look for something new when one passion ceases to give great pleasure. Hence it turns out that cigarettes lead to insatiability and the desire to isolate oneself from the present.
People who smoke rarely control themselves and allow themselves immoral behavior. Gradually, other weaknesses appear, a person no longer wants to take care of his own health. However, the Scriptures remind us that the one who destroys the body will surely experience punishment.
Some clergymen, speaking of constant smoking, recall obsession. They warn that inside cigarette smoke is an addiction demon that gets stronger with every puff. A person first of all succumbs to the influence of his evil master and continues to destroy the body given by the Lord.
Smoking is considered as an empty act that does not bring any benefit: the nervous system is depleted, psychological dependence appears, organs suffer and terrible diseases gradually appear.
The cigarette distances one from the Lord and does not allow sincere participation in the sacrament, which is performed on an empty stomach. The believer must defend the service and drink church wine, which personifies the blood of the Savior. Before this ritual, as well as during it, you can not smoke, but a person addicted to tobacco is not able to endure torture without harmful smoke. It turns out that the smoker exchanges the great sacrament for a senseless craving for tobacco.
The Church forbids smoking because the Lord commanded His children to maintain bodily and spiritual purity. A cigarette will not allow adherence to this law, since toxic resins settle inside the organs, and the psychology of the individual also suffers in a similar way.
The clergy say that the soul of a smoker does not find peace after death, since it did not get rid of the demon of addiction during life. The sin of smoking is condemned and called spiritual weakness, indecency, and tobacco is regarded as a gift from the devil. An addiction brings a person closer to negative energies, leads to a moral fall and brings physical death closer.

Important! Getting rid of this dangerous habit comes only with an understanding of the negative consequences. A person will quit smoking when he takes his will into a fist and sincerely wishes for purity of body and spirit. With the appearance of such a desire, it is necessary to go to church in order to confess and take communion, for the Lord always supports motives for ennobling consciousness.

Church attitude

The Orthodox Church has a negative attitude towards the tradition of smoking, because tobacco causes addiction, pollutes the organs with tar, and destroys the nervous system. The cigarette is contrary to the Christian rites, which call on believers to maintain the purity of the shell and the balance of the mind.

Smoking is a meaningless activity that is of absolutely no use to people and their environment. A person does not receive anything good from this evil. Therefore, Orthodox believers should eschew this destruction, which does not bring any benefit to the formation of the individual.

The believer is obliged to strive for things that are detailed and useful, because the Lord, creating the world, created it right and rational. Hence, it turns out that smokers, drawing poisonous smoke into their lungs every day, destroy the bodies given to them by the Supreme Creator, and shamelessly contradict the original plan of God.

Orthodox Church about smoking

Any person has information that smoking is a bad attachment that adversely affects a person's health and his life.

The fact that smoking tobacco is unsafe for well-being is understood by everyone without exception. However, there is another nuance to the problem - a moral one.

Is tobacco smoking considered a sin, since neither the Gospel nor the Immaculate Founders talk about it? Is it necessary to fight this harmful habit, or is it still possible to allow yourself a small weakness? Does it hinder the existence of the church?

Thus, whether tobacco smoking is considered a sin in Christianity, this article will tell.

Church against smoking

Addressing to religion in certain everyday situations, the individual must be aware that he will need to understand and change his own usual style of existence, and, therefore, first of all, in general, get rid of those habits and inclinations that the temple considers sinful.

According to the main canons, tobacco smoking is considered a sin. Since this habit is an unwholesome attraction, as well as every other one that prevents one from following the path of salvation and pardon. God created man according to the type and similarity of his own, so that he possesses perfection and achieves the main - endless existence.

It is necessary not to forget that each attraction is a “disease” of the soul and comes into contact with other, no less terrible diseases.

And if this disease is firmly established in the soul of a person, then it will contribute to the development of other flaws and sins, and directly:

Expression of selfishness (smoking father and mother, in particular girls-mothers);

The appearance of a continuous feeling of sadness about individual independence, and in Christianity oppression is a serious offense;

The expression of the misdemeanor of self-justification;

Dulling the feeling of chastity;

Forgiving yourself of other weaknesses.

Based on the data and other rather significant factors, it is possible to clearly note one of them - this is an unwholesome weakness, which is considered evil. It destroys the state of health as well as physiological and spiritual. The theory of the immaculate testifies that life activity is given to people by the Lord as well as a great gift.

And to reduce life by destructive actions is a terrible sin. If you think about it, you can understand that a smoking individual harms not only his own well-being, but also the well-being of the people around him. And there is no excuse for this.

Priests on smoking

Priests constantly go against tobacco smoking and report the following about it:

Any unwholesome attraction is considered the result of a combination of human sinful freedom and diabolical influences, the contribution of which in the fall of mankind is very difficult to justify, since their effect is imperceptible;

This weakness makes mankind slaves in most situations up to the very death, which can happen quite quickly due to poor health;

The misdeed of smoking tobacco can be overcome if the will of man and the influence of the Almighty unite into one;

A person will rise above this attraction only when he decisively understands what complications such weakness will bring. Since, it is well known that cigarettes lead to relaxation of the soul and body, spoils the mind and destroys the state of health;

The results of the morbidity of the state of pressure from the effects of tobacco smoking are nervousness and despondency;

Before you get rid of the offense of smoking, you need to confess, do the ritual of the sacrament of the Immaculate Mysteries and read the Gospel and prayer daily, and this will help to give up cigarettes.

Devil's Gift

The gift of the devil - this is how addiction to cigarettes is called. Saying goodbye to smoking is very difficult, but the one who was able to do this has a strong inner determination.

Consequently, a person will follow the moral road to the Lord, where he can acquire endless happiness.

To follow the right path, you need to try to eliminate a pernicious offense, since it will not lead to good in any way, but will only worsen your whole future life. If you endure, you will overcome the beast. However, do it with the smile and ease of a powerful person. Don't let your own mood get worse because of tobacco.

Do not forget, a cigarette is not worth the waste of your nerves and quarrels with people. In order to approach the Lord, accept his power and focus on his endless belief, you will need to cleanse your soul of addictions.

May the Almighty God always protect and protect you!

Boris, Smoking is a sin because it is:
1. Slow suicide, poisoning.
2. Smoking is addictive. If you succumb to addiction, then in a minute you will do at least 10 sins.
3. It's a legalized drug. All signs for the drug match.
So, we found out that the humble smoker has no faith, because he cannot fight sin, namely:
*"I am the Lord your God. May you have no other gods but Me."
<Курильщик!>Your god is cigarettes, not Trinity. They command you, and you obey them.
*"Do not pronounce the Name of the Lord your God in vain, for He will punish the one who pronounces His Name in vain."
<Курильщик!>How can you justify yourself by denying smoking? After death, there is no dependence, no brain that justifies you, but only your guilt remains, and faith with a soul is not inherited.
* "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify.
edzhil?
*"Do not overdo it."
<Курильщик!>Are you holy when you worship your god?
*"Do not bear false witness."
<Курильщик!>Are you trying to interpret the Word of God to your advantage? And Christ said "Whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit, there is no forgiveness either in this or in the next age." Repent before it's too late!
*"Don't steal."
<Курильщик!>There was a case when I was sitting in the subway and saw that the one who wanted you had lost his deity. One girl took one cigarette before leaving the car, and another man took it for himself. Everyone looked at him, including me. Won't you join the cheeky ones?
*"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house"
<Грешник!>Do you want and want? And your thoughts are directed against all commandments?
*"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, ... none of what he has."
<Курильщик!>Do you encroach on the murder of yourself, on disrespect, slander, and theft?
<Курильщик!>* Do you think that you will find peace after death?

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Priest Afanasy Gumerov, a resident of the Sretensky Monastery, answers:

The holy fathers define various diseases of the soul with the concept of passion. There are various classifications of passions. Man combines the carnal and spiritual principles. Therefore, in accordance with this, passions are divided into bodily and spiritual. The former have their ground in bodily needs, the latter in spiritual ones. It is difficult to draw a clear line between them, since the "epicenter" of all passions is in the soul. The most common bodily passions: “gluttony, gluttony, luxury, drunkenness, eating in secret, various kinds of voluptuousness, fornication, adultery, debauchery, impurity, incest, child corruption, bestiality, bad wishes and all sorts of unnatural and shameful passions ...” (Philokalia. T 2, Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1993, p. 371). Smoking belongs to an unnatural passion, for chronic self-poisoning is not rooted in the realm of the natural needs of the body.

All passions are stumbling blocks on our path to salvation. By its origin, human nature as a creation of the All-Wise God, as His image and likeness, has perfection. The goal of our entire Christian life is to unite with God and in Him alone to find the bliss of eternal life. Performing the work of salvation, we must restore in ourselves the image of God, distorted by various sins, and acquire the likeness of our Heavenly Parent.
When a person is in captivity of passion, his soul cannot restore the distorted image and return the original god-likeness. If a person is overcome by passions, then his soul becomes defiled, his mind becomes dead, and his will becomes powerless. The Holy Fathers call this state the second idolatry. Man worships his passions like idols. An idolater cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven (Eph. 5:5). “Without purity from passions, the soul does not heal from sinful ailments, and does not acquire the glory lost by crime” (St. Isaac the Syrian).

Any passion, being a disease of the soul, is linked by invisible links with other ailments. There are no impenetrable walls in the soul. Rooted passion contributes to the formation of other vices. Egoism is grossly manifested. A mother who smokes while walking over a stroller in which a baby sleeps puts the satisfaction of passion above the health of her child. Parents who smoke tend to teach it to their children. Children are not their property. When they infect them for the rest of their lives with this destructive habit, they act not only against the Christian conscience, but also contrary to universal morality.

If a person has realized the perniciousness of smoking, he often loses heart, seeing that he has become a prisoner of this habit and does not have freedom. The sin of self-justification, the dulling of the moral sense, is also closely connected with smoking. Having come to terms with this passion, a person forgives himself and other weaknesses, for the power of precedent is great.

Smoking is also a sin because it destroys health. According to the general teaching of the Holy Fathers, life and health are given to us by God as a gift. To shorten one's life by bad habits and unhealthy lifestyles is a serious sin.

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Henry Ford: " The world needs men today. Not those whose mind and will have been weakened or destroyed by the craving for alcohol or tobacco, but, on the contrary, men whose mentality has not been corrupted by habits that are often uncontrollable.».

"Smoking kills!" - Strictly warn inscriptions on cigarette packs. The anti-tobacco campaign has been going on for many years, and probably everyone has known since childhood that “smoking is dangerous for your health”, and now also that “smoking is the cause of chronic diseases”, and also that “smoking can cause infertility”. And, nevertheless, the people are somehow not particularly impressed by these frightening inscriptions on cigarette packs. My friend even collected a collection of the most terrible anti-tobacco inscriptions (which did not prevent him from continuing to smoke at all).

So, today we will talk about smoking - the most common bad habit on the planet - and why it is better for any person, especially a Christian, to stay away from it.

SMOKING SIN?

The most “advanced” ones say that the Bible does not say that smoking is a sin, so supposedly smoking is possible without a twinge of conscience. So after all, the Bible does not say that using heroin is a sin, however, drug addiction and Christianity are incompatible concepts, no one argues! Smoking, like drug addiction, is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible for the simple reason that in biblical times these harmful "addictions" did not yet exist! For example, tobacco was discovered on October 12, 1492 by the expedition of Christopher Columbus. When his expedition landed on one of the islands, the expedition members were astounded as they saw the islanders exhaling smoke from their noses and mouths. The islanders then celebrated their sacred holiday, on which they smoked a special herb called "tobacco". Hence the current name of tobacco. And here is our first argument that smoking is a sin:

The tradition of smoking originates from pagan rites
The Indians on the island that Columbus visited smoked to the point of insanity. In this state, they entered into a trance and began to communicate with the demons, and then passed on to everyone what the “Great Spirit” had told them. So tobacco smoking was an integral part of demon worship rituals. Columbus took "tobacco" with him, and very quickly smoking became fashionable.
In different historical periods, it was understood that smoking is a pernicious habit.
To overcome smoking, even extreme measures were applied.
For example, in Switzerland in 1661, the tobacco trade was considered an act tantamount to murder. And in 1625 in Turkey, smokers were executed, and severed heads with pipes in their mouths were put on display. In Persia, as a punishment for smoking, lips and noses were cut off, and tobacco merchants were burned along with their goods. In Russia, Tsar Mikhail in 1634 ordered "smokers to be executed by death", and Tsar Alexei in 1649 commanded smokers to "smack their nostrils and cut their noses", and then "exile them to distant cities."

And only with the coming to power of Peter I, who himself smoked and ordered others, did smoking become widespread in Russia.

3. Smoking is injurious to health
According to the 1999 Classification of Diseases, tobacco dependence is officially labeled as a disease. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, many of which are highly toxic and cause cancer. When the smoke reaches the lungs, it settles there in the form of tar. As a result of all this, changes in the internal organs begin. First, the respiratory organs suffer, because they are the first to come into contact with smoking products, then the cardiovascular system and the gastrointestinal tract take the blow.

Just one cigarette leads to a significant increase in pressure, that is, the heart begins to work more actively, as a result of this, smokers with experience acquire the so-called “tobacco heart”. You can't buy a new heart, so why not take good care of the one you have?

Smoking increases the chance of a heart attack. Women have problems with childbearing, men have impotence. On average, a smoker's life expectancy is reduced by ten years. In addition, as a “bonus” to all of the above, you get yellow teeth, bad breath and hair.

Smoking destroys health, which means that a person who smokes violates the commandment of God: “Don't you know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; and this temple is you” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Smoking is a slow suicide, and suicide is called a terrible sin in the Bible.

Harm to the health of others
But you are harming not only yourself, but also those around you. And since the most dear people - children, spouse, close relatives - surround you more often than others, you harm them especially strongly. The following data can illustrate how harmful passive smoking is: in the United States in the mid-1990s, three thousand people a year died from passive smoking ...
So it is not surprising that in many countries smoking in public places is prohibited by law. If you decide to quickly go to the other world, then do not “take away” at least others with you. Scripture says, “Love your neighbor,” which means that you should not do anything that harms your neighbors – you should not expose them to the harmful effects of tobacco smoke.

On your health, someone is just making money!
The World Health Organization claims that smoking is a contagious disease transmitted through advertising. Tobacco companies spend incredible amounts every year on sponsorship of sporting events. The advertising and sale of cigarettes during these competitions encourages young people to smoke.
The cigarette takes you into bondage
Many would like to quit smoking. According to researchers, 99% of smokers among those who are over 30 years old want to give up this habit. But, alas, it is not easy to do this: cigarettes are taken prisoner.

Dostoevsky wrote the following about smokers in The Brothers Karamazov: “I ask you: is such a person free? I knew one “fighter for the idea” who himself told me that when they deprived him of tobacco in prison, he was so exhausted by the deprivation of strength that he almost went and betrayed his “idea” just to give him tobacco. But this one says: "I'm going to fight for humanity." Well, where will this one go, and what is he capable of?
Any addiction is a sin, because it controls a person's life, enslaves him. And the Bible in the First Epistle to the Corinthians says the following: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is lawful to me, but nothing should possess me” (6:12).

Smoking steals wealth
Many families do not always have money for children for some educational games or courses, but for some reason there is always money for cigarettes. Still, as a familiar smoker said: “If I don’t smoke for a long time, my ears will swell.” But you have no idea that the habit of smoking steals from you ... millions!

Let's count. A pack of more or less high-quality cigarettes in Russia costs 75 rubles. An experienced smoker needs two packs of these cigarettes a day. A total of 150 rubles a day goes up in smoke. This is 1050 rubles a week, 4500 a month. But if these 4500 rubles are put aside every month to a bank account at 10% per annum, then in a year you will already have 56,000, in two - 119,000, in five years - 348,000 rubles , in ten years - almost 1 million, in fifteen years - almost 2 million rubles, in forty years - 28 million rubles. Since many people start smoking from their school years, it is not difficult to imagine how much money a person spends on cigarettes that kill his health. And if you really save "cigarette" money? After all, then you can retire as a millionaire and not worry about how to live when old age has come, and even help others! But all this will not happen, because every day you invest the money you earn not in creation, but in the destruction of your own body.

So smoking is a sin that makes you poor!

According to memo.im

316news.org

Yes it's sad.

Meditation on a cigarette http://www.pravmir.ru/mysli-o-kurenii-i-kuryashhix/ :

Everyone knows that smoking is dangerous to health. But there is another aspect of the problem - the moral one. Is smoking a sin - after all, neither the Gospel nor the Holy Fathers say anything about it? Should we fight this bad habit, or can we still afford a little weakness? Does it interfere with spiritual life? The psychologist-consultant of the Sobesednik center, priest Andrey LORGUS, answers

Is smoking a sin or not?

This is a matter of casuistry. Sin - from what point of view? After all, there are many more sins than are named in the Bible, and there is no such set of sins that would be accepted by the entire Orthodox Church. So, if we set ourselves the task of finding a loophole in the text, in the formal rules, we can easily prove that smoking is not a sin. Not prohibited means allowed. But the fact is that the spiritual position is not based on the points of the canonical rules. Genuine Orthodoxy is in the spirit. And from a spiritual point of view, smoking, of course, is completely unacceptable. It is a habit that hinders the spiritual life.

You can drink wine, but you can't get drunk. It's always about measure. How to define it? In Orthodoxy, the measure is the conscience and consciousness of a person. All Orthodox spiritual practice is aimed at a clear, precise consciousness, the holy fathers constantly spoke about sobriety, sober thinking. Any kind of chemical influence on consciousness from the point of view of Orthodoxy is unacceptable. So how much wine can you drink? As long as your consciousness is clear, pure and adequate. How much can you smoke? Not at all. After all, even a minimal amount of tobacco causes an altered state of consciousness.

Even one cigarette? One puff?

Yes, definitely. If a smoker inhales on an empty stomach against a background of severe stress, he may faint. What does it say? It is about the fact that even one puff greatly affects the human mind.

What is an "altered state of consciousness"?

This condition is unusual, atypical. For example, a person may fall into a trance, become euphoric, or feel overwhelmed, overwhelmed. In other words, inadequate. Moral values, family, kinship, friendship ties for some time recede into the background or disappear altogether. For example, a person in a state of passion, anger can commit any act, because in this case no norms are relevant for him. A drug addict in a state of withdrawal does not remember either his father or mother, or God, or the rules. This is the change of consciousness. In fact, the same thing happens with a smoker. Of course, not at all to the same extent as with a drug addict or an alcoholic. And yet every puff affects his consciousness. And how many such puffs from one cigarette? How many cigarettes a day? The effect on consciousness is barely noticeable, and therefore smoking is not recognized by everyone as dangerous from a psychological and spiritual point of view. But narcologists and Christian psychologists believe that smoking makes human thinking not quite adequate.

Some claim that smoking helps them focus.

What really helps - temporarily - is not smoking per se, but changing the breath. There are mystical-occult and parapsychological breathing practices. Their essence is in meditation, in achieving the same altered state of consciousness. When a person begins to breathe too intensely or in a certain rhythm, holding his breath, for example, he may experience visions, hallucinations, euphoria. Here, while smoking, a certain breathing ritual is also performed - the smoker uses breathing practice as meditation. In general, people think that the main thing in smoking is tobacco. Smoke, of course, affects consciousness, but changing breathing is also of great importance.

But the person does not even notice that he is meditating.

Well, in life we use a lot of defenses and techniques without realizing them. It's the same with food. People do not notice that in a state of stress they eat more than their body needs. Or they eat too many sweets.

A novice smoker experiences a lot of discomfort, but still continues to rape himself. For what?

For a beginner, smoking is always stressful. He receives a dose of poison, to which the body reacts unequivocally - rejection. Yes, this is self abuse. But most often this violence helps a person to survive some kind of more severe violence - trauma, humiliation, chronic stress. The fact is that traumatized people are drawn to traumatic ways of life. Some psychologists call smoking "oral auto-aggression" - "harming yourself through your mouth." The beginning of smoking is somewhat reminiscent of masochism - to hurt yourself so as not to hear other pain. But the body quickly gets used to it.

Does this mean that some kind of mental trauma always becomes the initial cause of smoking?

There are a lot of reasons. Children, for example, may start smoking to appear "cool" or "adult". Women often smoke for show: a cigarette in beautiful hands - isn't it elegant! Therefore, manicure, rings, cigarette brand are very important for them. Even how lipstick is imprinted on a cigarette is important. In general, the motives can be very different, each case must be dealt with separately. To understand what a smoker lacks, one must understand what smoking means to him. Perhaps he lacks self-confidence, concentration, communication skills, psychological protection. And again, returning to the question of sin: in each case, this sin will be called in its own way. One thus escapes reality, the other does not want to sort out his mental problems and resorts to such pseudo-methods to solve them. You see, these are very different sins.

But if you are drawn to a cigarette, then you should always understand the reasons?

What does need mean? There are people who never understand themselves, and do not feel the need for it. But if a person sets himself even the smallest spiritual task - "to understand who I am, why I live" - then sooner or later he will face the question "why and why do I smoke?".

And the question “why can’t I go without coffee in the morning?” stand in front of him too?

Quite possible. Even tea can become a destructive habit. People who are prone to addiction will find something to depend on - tea, smoking, tape measure.

Is smoking possible without addiction? I want - I smoke, I don't want - I don't smoke.

Then answer the question, why did you suddenly want to smoke? Nothing just happens.

For example, being in the company of classmates, among the smell of smoke, a person who has long quit smoking feels a desire to pick up a cigarette.

It is necessary to understand why it is in this environment that he has such a desire. Does it smell good? This means that the dependence on smoking lives in it, the body remembers it. Gravity is addiction: you see a bottle - and you want to drink, you hear the smell of smoke - and you want to smoke. And any dependence is the enslavement of the will. This is another aspect of spiritual passion. Smoking, from an Orthodox point of view, is a passion. If at the beginning the cigarette “calms”, then its absence can drive you crazy. For "experienced" smokers, it is a big problem to wait for communion without smoking a single cigarette in the morning. A sad sight when, having gone out of the gates of the temple, a man with trembling hands takes out a pack of cigarettes, takes a puff and his face breaks into a blissful smile...

Is quitting smoking always painful?

There are miracles when a hardened smoker quits and does not experience any withdrawal. But here we can rather talk about the intervention of God's grace. As a rule, it is not easy to overcome this passion.

At the same time, many become angry, irritable, sometimes inadequate. Is this not an altered state of consciousness?

Of course it's changed. But withdrawal is just the right time to ask yourself, "Why am I feeling so bad?" There is a physiological breakdown as a reaction of the body to the restructuring, and it passes quite quickly. But there is still a psychological breakdown: here I am sitting in a company without a cigarette and I feel awkward, uncomfortable, as if I have lost myself. Just at this moment, you can recognize the cause of the addiction and start working with it. With a cause - not a symptom! After all, when a person smokes and feels good, he is not ready to realize his spiritual problems. But when he feels bad - then it's time to figure it out.

They say that quitting smoking is easier if someone from relatives or friends has quit. So, by quitting smoking, a person not only takes care of himself, but, perhaps, helps someone else?

I think yes. The anti-advertising of smoking will not work as long as people significant to us smoke. And no restrictions will help. The state makes laws, but no one enforces them. And it will not perform further if the mood in society does not change. Remember, in the second half of the 90s, a fashion for a healthy lifestyle appeared in our country? And immediately everything changed! As soon as the elite of society began to visit gyms, jog, go to summer cottages, this instantly became the norm for the majority. The spiritual state of society is what we call social consciousness. Until it changes, the ranks of smokers will continue to grow. And if society understands that smoking is not a bad habit, but a manipulation of one's consciousness, then liberation from addiction will begin.

sretenie.forum2x2.ru

IS SMOKING A SIN? The inability to quit smoking is a myth. I personally know many people who, being smokers with serious experience - 30-40 years, managed to quit smoking, some gradually, others immediately and never returned to this passion. With God's help, everything is possible. If a person turns to God, He helps him to quit this infection. Sure, smoking is a sin. I will share my priestly experience: I communed the dying, attended funerals and saw that the death of many people was directly related to smoking. And it is very difficult to get rid of this evil. Once I gave unction and communion before her death to a woman who was dying of cancer of the larynx, and in this state she could not quit smoking. Even before Communion, I took a few puffs! But since she was dying, I could not help but give communion to her. And how many people die from lung cancer caused by smoking! But not only the respiratory organs are destructively affected by tobacco - others too. The perniciousness of this habit, which causes serious addiction, is also in the fact that many smokers cannot take communion because of smoking. If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later? Or even you endured, took communion, and then what? When you leave the temple, do you greedily inhale? So this sinful pleasure deprives the smoker of the Sacrament. (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov) The impossibility of quitting smoking is a myth. I personally know many people who, being smokers with serious experience - 30-40 years, managed to quit smoking, some gradually, others immediately and never returned to this passion. With God's help, everything is possible. If a person turns to God, He helps him to quit this infection. I remember from the life of the Monk Silouan how he once visited Russia, rode in a train to some monastery, and opposite him a merchant took a seat, who offered him a cigarette. The elder refused, and the merchant began to insist, saying: “Isn’t it because, father, you refuse because you consider it a sin? Smoking often helps in an active life: it is good to interrupt the stress of work and rest for a few minutes. It is convenient to have a business or friendly conversation while smoking…” The Monk Silouan gave him the following advice: “Before you light a cigarette, pray, say ‘Our Father’.” The merchant replied: “Praying before smoking somehow doesn’t work.” To this, Saint Silouan said: “It is better not to do any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer.” But the main harm of smoking, of course, is spiritual. “Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the sickness of the soul from smoking,” St. Ambrose of Optina teaches us. And yet we become slaves of this sin. “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). And we are called to freedom in Christ: “And you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The Gift of Love can only be accepted by a free person in Christ. If a person has realized the perniciousness of smoking, he often loses heart, seeing that he has become a prisoner of this habit and does not have freedom. The sin of self-justification, the dulling of the moral sense, is also closely connected with smoking. Having come to terms with this passion, a person forgives himself and other weaknesses, for the power of precedent is great. Smoking is also a sin because it destroys health. According to the general teaching of the Holy Fathers, life and health are given to us by God as a gift. To shorten one's life by bad habits and unhealthy lifestyles is a serious sin. A smoker harms his health and the health of those present. Is it possible to quit smoking? Can. In England, about 10 million people have stopped smoking over the past 10-15 years. Almost 2,000 people quit smoking every day! According to the general teaching of the holy fathers, a person with the help of God can overcome any passion. The great elder Ambrose of Optina gives advice in the fight against the ailment of smoking: “You write that you cannot leave tobacco to smoke. soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death.—Irritability and longing are the consequences of the sickness of the soul from smoking tobacco.I advise you to use spiritual medicine against this passion: confess all sins in detail, from the age of seven and throughout your life , and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and read daily, standing, the Gospel for a chapter or more; and when melancholy attacks, then read again until the melancholy passes; again it attacks and read the Gospel again. - Or instead, put, alone, 33 large bow, in memory of the earthly life of the Savior and in honor of the Holy Trinity. Why are so few people parting with the "gift of the devil"? Because most smokers don't want to quit this habit. And those who desire it and take steps towards it do not really have the inner determination. Despite impulsive efforts, people who repeatedly quit smoking, deep down, are related to this passion. God is always ready to help a person in this saving work, but he expects a feat from him. Therefore, help us, Lord, to get rid of everything harmful and unnecessary, so that we can be in joy and love, and not in torment here and in eternity. And they depended only on the Holy God, and not on cigarettes, sinful pleasures and, ultimately, on the devil, who is behind all this. priest Andrei Barabash

ok.ru

Why is smoking a sin?

Here are the main pieces of evidence that characterize smoking as a sin.

Read, for example, biographies of the most talented rock musicians and actors. Many of them died precisely from alcohol, smoking, drug addiction and all the consequences of a depraved life. These arguments are enough to declare: the sin of smoking, drunkenness, drug addiction harm your not only physical, but also spiritual health.

Confession, communion and prayer are the cure for sin

But how to get rid of it? You will be advised some advertised pills, lollipops (carry a candy in your pocket and eat it when you want to puff on a cigarette), coding, psychological techniques. This is quite enough for those who want to quickly and effortlessly achieve the effect.

But quitters testify that it rarely works. Either it brings only a short-term result, and then a person can fall into the sin of smoking with even greater intensity. Why? Because this problem is not only physical, but also spiritual, and therefore requires appropriate treatment.

There is a saint in the Orthodox Church who gave a lot of valuable advice to those who want to get rid of the passion of smoking. This is the Monk Ambrose of Optina, to whom they just pray to get rid of the “smoke kite”.

Realize that this is a sin, and it harms your spiritual and physical condition, you want to get rid of it.
Start cleansing with a "general" confession. Analyze your own life, remember all your vices that only come to mind, and repent before God. Only not formally, but with the realization that you no longer want to return to what was before.
Communion. Establishing a connection with God will help break the chain of relationships with demons who specialize in this destructive passion.
Daily read the Gospel one chapter a day, interpretations, meditate on what you have read. Ambrose of Optina advises to read the Holy Scriptures in those moments when melancholy attacks. Demons can't stand the word of God. Or do 33 bows (so much Jesus Christ lived on earth).

In modern prayer books, one can find a separate prayer to St. Ambrose, on whose advice many overcame passion.

Reverend Father Ambrose, you, having boldness before the Lord, begged the Greatly Gifted Vladyka to give me an ambulance in the fight against impure passion. God! Through the prayers of Your saint, Saint Ambrose, cleanse my lips, make my heart chaste and saturate it with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit, so that the evil tobacco passion will run away from me far away, to where it came from, into the womb of hell

Daily reading of these lines, accompanied by hope for Divine help, really helps to get rid of the sin of smoking. But before quitting cigarettes, it is advisable to talk to the confessor and ask him for a blessing. One friend smoked for about 15 years and could not get rid of it on his own. But with the blessing and prayers of his spiritual father, as well as his own desire, for many years he got rid of the bad habit of "smoking - to incense for demons."

megapoisk.com

The Bible never explicitly mentioned smoking. But still, there are several chapters that clearly relate to smoking. First, the Bible advises us not to allow our bodies to be subject to anything.

There is no doubt that smoking is a serious addiction. Further, in the same passage it says:

Smoking is undoubtedly harmful to our health. Smoking has been proven to damage the lungs and often the heart.

Can smoking be considered “healthy” (1 Corinthians 6:12)? Can we say that smoking is “the glorification of God in your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:20)? Can a person smoke “for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31)? We believe that the answer to all these three questions is one - "no". As a result, we believe that smoking is a sin and therefore should not be practiced by the followers of Christ.

Some people object to this opinion by referring to the fact that many people eat unhealthy food, and this is the same addiction and it affects their body just as badly. For example, many people are so hopelessly addicted to caffeine that they simply cannot function properly without a morning cup of coffee. Even if this is true, how does that justify smoking? Our point of view is that Christians should avoid gluttony and excessive junk food. Yes, Christians are often hypocritical, condemning one sin, and, at the same time, allowing themselves another ... but, again, this does not contribute to the glorification of the Lord through smoking?

Another argument against this view is the fact that many devout people smoke, such as the famous British preacher Spurgeon. Again, we do not believe that this argument has any force. We believe Spurgeon is wrong about smoking. Was he otherwise a devout man and an excellent teacher of God's Word? Definitely! Does this make all his actions and habits praise the Lord? No!

By saying that smoking is a sin, we are not saying that smokers will not be saved. Many believers in Jesus Christ smoke. Smoking does not prevent a person from being saved later. Smoking is forgiven in the same way as any other sins, and this does not depend on whether a person is just going to become a Christian or whether a Christian already admits his sin before God.

At the same time, we firmly believe that smoking is a sin that we must get rid of and, with God's help, overcome it.

www.bibleonline.ru

On the spiritual and physical harm of smoking ...

Articles under the heading "Spiritual space of Siberia" often receive responses from readers. Some of these responses are published in the "Feedback" section, others often become an occasion for subsequent articles. And sometimes articles on topics that journalists did not even think about ...

Sacrifice. You could be the next victim!

Dear editors! I have heard the words "sin of smoking" several times. I agree that smoking in itself is not a good thing. But why is it a sin?

Smoking does not violate any commandments of God. Nothing is said about the sinfulness of smoking in Holy Scripture or in the writings of the Fathers of the Church. Smoking does not harm another person (subject to elementary rules of politeness). I repeat: of course, smoking is a very bad habit, but, probably, it is still wrong to call it a "sin". When I shared these thoughts with my friend, he said that the Bible even has the words: "smoking makes the heart happy." I checked it with a special computer program "Bible Quote", and made sure that this phrase is actually present in the book of Proverbs (27:9)!

A. Yu. Vorontsov, Biysk.

Here is a letter. We can safely assume that in a society where the vast majority of men and about half of women smoke, many will agree with the point of view of the author of the letter. Especially since these same "many" (according to opinion polls) consider themselves Orthodox Christians. And who wants to count the "extra" sin? Moreover, in some ways the reader seems to be right.

Nothing is really said about the dangers of smoking right in the Holy Scriptures. Tobacco appeared in our world many centuries after the creation of the Bible. The date of "discovery" of smoking is known very precisely. “On October 12, 1492, the expedition of Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador,” Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev) wrote. “The sailors were amazed by an unprecedented sight: the red-skinned inhabitants of the island let out clouds of smoke from their mouths and noses! The Indians celebrated their sacred holiday, on which they smoked a special herb whose dried and rolled leaf, like today's cigar, was called "tobacco" among them, whence the present name of tobacco comes from.

The natives smoked "tobacco" to the point of complete stupefaction. In this state, they entered into communication with certain "demons", and then they told about what the "Great Spirit" had told them. Smoking was part of the rituals of worship of the pagan gods of the Aztecs, who were brought, among others, and human sacrifices.

The sailors of Columbus took the mysterious herb with them to Europe. And very quickly the new "pleasure" became widespread. As Bishop Barnabas wrote: “And so, with the benevolent participation and secret prompting from demons, a literally general fever of tobacco smoking began throughout Europe and even Asia. Whatever the government and the clergy did to stop this evil, nothing helped!”

Not only Christians, but also Muslims tried to actively fight against smoking. In 1625, in Turkey, Amurat IV executed smokers, and flaunted severed heads with pipes in their mouths. In Persia, Shah Abbas the Great ordered that lips and noses be cut off as punishment for smoking, and tobacco dealers were burned along with their goods. Even in always free Switzerland in 1661, the Appenzel magistrate considered the tobacco trade as a sin, tantamount to murder!

In Russia, smoking has become a custom since Peter I, who himself smoked and even dared to stack smoking pipes in the manner of the bishops' dikiriya (two candlesticks) and trikiriya (three candlesticks) and "blessed" the people with them during his drunken "assemblies". But this is Peter, and before him, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in 1634 ordered "smokers to be executed by death." Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1649 ordered smokers to "smack their nostrils and cut their noses," and then "exile them to distant cities."

We will speak about the assessment of the patristic spiritual thought of the sin of smoking later, but for now we note that in fact, indirectly, the sin of smoking is still spoken of in Holy Scripture. God created the first people healthy and took care of their physical and spiritual perfection. "Love your neighbor as yourself," says one of the commandments of Christ. From this it follows that before loving your neighbor, you must "love yourself." To love and take care of the gift of life, which is given to all of us from God. And what kind of "careful attitude" to one's health as a smoker, if everyone knows that tobacco contains more than 30 harmful substances. The most dangerous of them is the nicotine alkaloid. There are especially many patients with bronchopulmonary diseases among smokers. And the most formidable consequence of smoking is cancer of the larynx and lungs. The fact is that tobacco smoke contains carcinogens that cause cancer. These are benzopyrene and its derivatives.

... It is no coincidence, as experts have calculated, that every minute in Russia three (!) People die from diseases caused by smoking ...

Everything that is given to man by God should be used for good. Bodily health is a priceless gift, and every action of ours that causes harm to health is a real sin before the Creator. Many holy teachers of the Church point to this. Here are the words of St. Nektarios of Aegina: “In order for a person to be blessed and worthy of his calling, it is necessary that he be healthy both in body and soul, because without the well-being of both, neither bliss nor capacity to fulfill the appointment can be acquired. take care of strengthening both the body and the soul, so that they are strong and strong.

***

"Don't you know that you are the temple of God," said the Apostle Paul, "and the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; and this temple is you." For a smoker, this temple is smoky and smoky, and Christ cannot move into this temple. It is not human nature to smoke. Breathe air, eat, drink, sleep - yes. But smoking, poisoning your body with poison, breathing fetid smoke is a requirement of sin, and not a requirement of nature.

Medicine says a lot about the dangers of smoking for bodily health. But nothing mentions that the fetid smell of tobacco covers up the smell of spiritual decay. It has been established that negative mental states lead to a change in the hormonal background of a person. Chemicals formed during stress and other internal conflicts are excreted from the body, and these secretions have a very heavy smell. Tobacco use makes it impossible to recognize the spiritual state of others at the deepest biological level. Smoking is licentiousness not only of the body, but also of the soul. This is a false calming of your nerves. Many smokers refer to the calming of the nerves after smoking a cigarette, not realizing that the nerves are the carnal mirror of the soul. Such reassurance is self-deception, a mirage. This narcotic sedation will be the source of soul torment. Now, while there is a body, this "calming" must be regularly renewed. And then it will become a source of hellish torment. It must be remembered that after death, after the separation of the soul from the body, the passions that manifested themselves in bodily life do not leave the human soul. Not freed from this or that passion, the soul will transfer it to another world, where in the absence of the body it will be impossible to satisfy this passion. The soul will languish and burn with an unceasing thirst for sin and lust. He who is insatiable in food will suffer after his death with the inability to fill his belly. The drunkard will be incredibly tormented, not having a body that can only be soothed by alcohol. The fornicator will experience the same feeling. Selfish too, and a smoker too. If a smoker does not smoke for several days during his lifetime, what will he experience? Terrible torment, but torment softened by other aspects of life. But that is two days, and the deceased has eternity ahead. And eternal torment...

Meanwhile, the army of smokers is rapidly getting younger. The age of initiation to smoking in Russia has decreased to 10 years for boys and 12 for girls. Smoking has a particularly detrimental effect on children's bodies. Among other things, smoking adolescents form a complex of neuropsychic abnormalities. As a result, attention, memory, sleep suffer, mood "jumps". Teen smoking has a devastating effect on reproductive function. It is no coincidence that today more than 70 percent of boys and girls have serious problems in this "part" by the age of 15.

If we return to the "spiritual component" of the harm from smoking, then we should dwell on the lack of freedom of the smoker. Many of the smokers (especially in adulthood) would like to quit smoking. According to sociologists, 100 (!) percent of smokers after 30 would like to give up a harmful and sinful habit. Alas ... Smokers develop nicotine syndrome. This is the same dependence as on alcohol and drugs, only less damaging to health. Although, how to say: lung cancer, cancer of the larynx - the argument is not at all in favor of the harmlessness of such a harmful addiction as smoking.

It would be useful to mention that in the new classification of diseases that came into force in 1999, tobacco dependence is officially recognized as an illness. And we will add - a sinful disease. Smoking is self-indulgence, a form of self-indulgence. It is no coincidence that in Rus' there has long been a saying: "To smoke - to incense for demons."

When a person smokes, Orthodox priests say, his soul is captured by demonic forces. And he adds another heavy link to the chain of slavish attachments; his will is weakened, and behind all the excuses for smoking, the voice of a weak-willed person is heard. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in The Brothers Karamazov: “I ask you: is such a person free? I knew one“ fighter for the idea ”who himself told me that when they deprived him of tobacco in prison, he was so exhausted by deprivation of strength that he almost went and betrayed his "idea" so that they would only give him tobacco. But such a one says: "I'm going to fight for humanity." Well, where will such a person go and what is he capable of?

Do you smoke? Realize your sin

Medical statistics have calculated that each cigarette smoked shortens a person's life by at least seven minutes. In general, smokers in Russia live five years less than non-smokers. Most smokers know this. Nevertheless, he cannot leave the sinful habit. Here is what the famous Orthodox writer S. A. Nilus wrote about the state of a smoker in the first part of the book "On the Bank of God's River."

"... July 7, 1909. Tonight I had a severe attack of choking cough. Serve it right! - this is all from smoking, which I cannot quit, and I have been smoking since the third grade of the gymnasium and now it is so thoroughly saturated with nicotine that it has already become, probably an integral part of my blood. It takes a miracle to wrest me from the clutches of this vice, and I don’t have enough will of my own. I tried to quit smoking, didn’t smoke for two days, but the result was that such melancholy and bitterness that this new sin was becoming worse than the old one. Father Barsanuphius forbade me even to make such attempts, limiting my daily portion of smoking to fifteen cigarettes. Before, I smoked without counting ... "

"Your hour will come," said Father Barsanuphius, "and the end of smoking will come." “Hope, do not despair: in due time, God willing, you will quit,” Father Joseph told me about the same smoking, from which I could not fall behind in any way. And a miracle, according to the word of both elders, happened to me. And it was so.

We live with my friend, my God-given wife, as they say, soul to soul, in the full sense of the Gospel word, so that we are not two, but one flesh. This great mercy of God, bestowed on us from above, is due to our deep and convinced faith in the Sacrament of Marriage, which we both at one time approached with fear and trembling. And so, in June 1910, my wife fell ill with some strange illness, which neither the Optina paramedic nor the invited doctor could determine: in the morning she was almost healthy, but in the evening she had a temperature of up to 40. And so the week, and another, and the third! I see my joy melting before my eyes, like a wax candle, and is about to flare up for the last time and go out. And then my orphaned heart was filled with great, immeasurable great anguish and sorrow, and I prostrated myself before the icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolensk, which stood in the corner of my office, and I wept before Her, and was horrified, and yearned, and spoke to Her as if she were alive. : "Mother Queen, my Blessed Mother of God! You, I believe, gave my angel's wife, You save her for me, and for that I give you a vow never to smoke again. I make a vow, but I know that I can’t fulfill it with my own strength, and not to fulfill is a great sin, so you yourself help me! So it was about ten o'clock in the evening. After praying and somewhat calming down, he approached his wife's bed. Sleeping, breathing is quiet, even. He touched his forehead: his forehead was moist, but not hot - my sweet dove was fast asleep. Glory to God, glory to the Most Pure! The next morning the temperature was 36.5, in the evening - 36.4, and a day later she got up, as she did not hurt. And I forgot that I smoked, as I never smoked, and I smoked for exactly thirty years and three years, and my whole body was so saturated with cursed tobacco that I could not live without it not only for a day, but even a minute.

In this whole story, I would like to focus not so much on the miracle that happened, but on the hero's awareness of sin itself. Without such awareness, a miracle would not be possible. And from here follows the first rule for those who want to quit addiction: one must realize the sinfulness of smoking. Actually, the overcoming of any sin begins with such a step ...

"Before you smoke, pray"

Now let's stop at the place in the reader's letter where he says that the church fathers did not say anything about the dangers of smoking. It's not like that at all. Another thing that you should know is that in the Russian Orthodox Church there are no boundaries of patristic instructions. Say, until some relatively old time - these are patristic instructions, and the instructions of those who, say, are ranked among the host of saints in recent years - this is something not authoritative enough. There are no such borders in the Russian Orthodox Church. Today's ascetics often absorb and develop the teachings of their predecessors, and every word of every holy ascetic is valuable in itself. Here are just some of the sayings of the Holy Fathers about the sin of smoking.

“Man has perverted the very pleasures of the senses. For smell and taste, and partly for breathing itself, he invented and burns almost incessantly sharp and odorous smoke, bringing this, as it were, a constant censer to a demon living in the flesh, infects the air of his dwelling and the external air with this smoke. , but first of all it is saturated with this stench itself, - and here you are, the constant coarsening of your feelings and your heart by constantly absorbed smoke cannot but affect the subtlety of the heart's feelings, it imparts to it carnality, rudeness, insensitivity.

Saint righteous John of Kronstadt: "Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys health by slow death. Irritability and longing are a consequence of the pain of the soul from smoking."

St. Ambrose of Optina: “In 1905, Elder Silouan of Athos spent several months in Russia, often visiting monasteries. On one of these trips on the train, he took a seat opposite the merchant, who, with a friendly gesture, opened his silver cigarette case in front of him and offered him a cigarette.

Father Siluan thanked for the offer, refusing to take a cigarette. Then the merchant began to say: “Isn’t it because, father, you refuse because you consider it a sin? But smoking often helps in an active life; it’s good to break the stress at work and rest for a few minutes. life..." And then, trying to convince Father Siluan to take a cigarette, he continued to speak in favor of smoking.

Then, nevertheless, Father Siluan decided to say: “Sir, before you light a cigarette, pray, say one thing:“ Our Father. the answer remarked: “So, any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer, it is better not to do it.”

Now about the quotation from the Bible from the book of Solomon's parables "smoking gladdens the heart." Of course, we are not talking about smoking tobacco. Smoking in ancient times was called the burning of aromatic substances and fragrant oil. People in all ages have loved incense, and in ancient times fragrant incense was added to the sacrifices. Fragrant plants and exotic incense were highly valued in religious ceremonies. They were worth their weight in gold and silver. So, the Queen of Sheba brought aromatic substances to Solomon as a gift. Incense was kept in the royal treasury. This is the kind of "smoking" that the Bible talks about. Smoking pleases the heart, and a friend's heartfelt advice is sweet - this is how this quote from the book of Proverbs looks like. Today, "smoking" in the temple can be called censing - when the priest passes through the temple with a censer, from which incense is burned. “At Divine services they burn incense, how can the slaves of sin not invent a kind of incense?” said St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer. “The first is pleasing to God, the second should be pleasing to God’s enemy, the devil.”

Church warns: smoking harms your soul

Today, many experts say that in recent years the world center for sales of cigarettes is increasingly shifting to Russia. In the United States and Western Europe, thanks to the measures taken, the number of smokers is reduced by tens of millions every year.

What are these measures? Smoking bans in public places - in restaurants, airplanes, on the street, in clubs, offices, etc. No less effective is the promotion of the harm of smoking. Posters about the dangers of tobacco are placed literally everywhere. Plus, the tobacco companies literally overwhelmed with lawsuits those who fell ill due to smoking. The claims amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the courts very often satisfy such claims. Perhaps even more important in the West is the high price of cigarettes. A pack of cigarettes in Europe costs at least five euros, that is, 160-180 rubles in terms of the Russian ruble. If such a pricing policy were in Russia, many people would think about whether it is worth putting such money into the smoke.

In Russia, it's a completely different matter. Due to the extremely low excise taxes, our cigarettes are quite inexpensive. They are accessible to everyone and, unfortunately, even to children. In Russia, global tobacco companies feel like a businessman. Having skilfully taken over almost all the country's tobacco factories (now there are only two (!) domestic tobacco companies operating in Russia), foreign firms have thrown huge amounts of money into smoking advertising. If almost everywhere in the world advertising of cigarettes is strictly prohibited, then in our country hundreds of billboards of tobacco products "decorate" the streets of almost all cities in the country. At the same time, Russian advertising legislation is violated grossly and everywhere (including in Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo, Barnaul). With the help of simple tricks, the inscription that smoking is harmful to health takes up a much smaller part of billboards than the law provides. This is done very simply. The percentage of the area is calculated according to the strip allocated for such an inscription, while the warning inscription itself is much smaller.

At the same time, foreign tobacco companies are trying in every possible way to create for themselves in Russia the image of companies that are extremely concerned about the negative impact of smoking on health. Abroad, this is impossible according to the laws. There, tobacco companies are legally prohibited from participating in charity events, sponsoring sports and all kinds of other events.

... In Los Angeles, on Santa Monica Boulevard, there is a scoreboard counting the number of deaths from addiction to cigarettes. In Russia, there is no such scoreboard in any city yet ...

It is not surprising that such a situation has caused serious criticism from both Russian public organizations and government officials. In particular, they propose to bring the inscriptions on cigarette packs warning about the dangers of smoking into line with Western standards. First of all, it is proposed to make this inscription (as well as abroad!) not in some inconspicuous size, but in half a tobacco pack. And here it makes sense to return to where we started, to the fact that smoking is not only harmful to health, but is a serious sin.

Warning labels on cigarette packs can be of very different content. Abroad, such inscriptions warn potential buyers that smoking is fraught with cancer. That smoking is extremely harmful to pregnant women. The fact that for young people smoking often turns into impotence. It seems that the Russian Orthodox Church will in every possible way support the proposal of the newspaper "Honest Word" that one of the inscriptions read: "The Russian Orthodox Church warns: smoking is a sin." The wording of such a warning can be specified, but there is no doubt that it is appropriate (and necessary!).

On the one hand, the voice of the Church today is very significant for many, on the other hand, very few (especially among young people) are aware of how (and why) the Orthodox Church treats tobacco smoking. And such a warning, no doubt, will bring positive results.

Alexander Okonishnikov

Honestly - 11/01/2006.

Prayer from the passion of smoking to the Monk Ambrose of Optina

Reverend Father Ambrose, you, having boldness before the Lord, begged the Greatly Gifted Vladyka to give me an ambulance in the fight against impure passion.

God! Through the prayers of Your saint, St. Ambrose, cleanse my lips, make my heart chaste and saturate it with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit, so that the evil tobacco passion will flee from me far away, to where it came from, into the womb of hell.