Saints about smoking tobacco. Smoking - Holy Fathers about smoking. Priests about tobacco addiction

Everyone knows how dangerous smoking is for physical health. Is there a spiritual danger? Why is this addiction considered a sin? Look, in Orthodox Greece, even priests smoke. For clarification, we turned to the pastors of the Russian Church.

Nicotine smoke takes the place of God's grace in the soul

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.

If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later?

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.

The inability to quit smoking is a myth. I personally know several people who, being smokers with serious experience - 30-40 years, managed to quit smoking. With God's help, everything is possible. If a person turns to God, He helps him to quit this infection.

Elder Siluan: “It’s better not to do any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer”

- Even on the packages of cigarettes they officially write: "Smoking kills." How is it not a sin that kills, that torments, deprives of health, causes suffering to the smoker himself and upsets people close to him?

All our sins are divided into three types: sins against God, against neighbors and against ourselves. So smoking is, of course, a sin against oneself, a conscious shortening of one's life, that is, the destruction of the priceless gift of God given to us for the salvation of our souls. But in a sense, it is also a sin against neighbors who are forced to inhale cigarette smoke in public places.

Smoking is an addiction. It enslaves the will of a person, makes him again and again seek his satisfaction. In general, it has all the signs of sinful passion. And passion, as you know, delivers only new torments to the soul of a person, deprives it of its already small freedom.

Sometimes smokers say that a cigarette helps them calm down and focus internally. However, it is known that nicotine acts destructively on the brain and nervous system. And the illusion of calm arises because nicotine also has an inhibitory effect on brain receptors. Not a single person has ever benefited from smoking even a minimal amount, and I am sure that there is no such smoker in the world who, at least once in his life, has not regretted that he was so addicted to nicotine.

To justify smoking, they often refer to Orthodox Greece, where even priests smoke. Indeed, Greece has the highest per capita consumption of cigarettes in the world. But there is nothing good in this. Perhaps smoking spread there under the influence of Islamic traditions that allow smoking. But if we look at Athos, this example of a strictly spiritual life both for Greece and for the entire Orthodox world, we will see that there is no smoking there. The Monk Paisios the Holy Mountaineer was unambiguously negative about smoking. And the venerable elder Silouan of Athos, too.

Is smoking a sin? - Oh sure. Although now in Greece smoking is not considered a sin. Yes, what is there to be wise! Even intuitively, smoking is perceived as something negative: smoke, stench, harm to health ... And most importantly - it's a passion, and there can be no doubt about it. To be honest, I used to smoke when I was young. Not for long, about five years, but so thoroughly that even "Belomor" smoked, "Prima" did not disdain. Who knows, he will understand... So, having been drawn into this pernicious passion, I very soon felt: I need to tie up with this matter - although I was not yet baptized at that time. But conscience felt. And out of the five years of my smoking, I “quit” for three years and could not quit. I distinctly remember my feelings. I woke up in the morning in a great mood with the determination not to smoke anymore, but by lunchtime the mood fades, the world around grows dim, and everything without smoking seems empty and meaningless - the first and surest sign of the action of passion. So after dinner you wash and wash and ... oh, just one! - you smoke with pleasure, “you will enjoy life”, and after a minute you already think with longing: well, you broke again. Indeed, you start smoking again. Or it even happened like this: you can last a week or two without smoking and you already feel like a “hero”, and then you find yourself somewhere in a company, relax and allow yourself the thought: “One cigarette does not solve anything”, smoke it - and then you understand: everything , broke. And for sure - you start smoking again and suffer from the fact that you cannot cope with this destructive passion. Moreover, even when I quit smoking, I dreamed for several years: I lit a cigarette - and with horror and longing I understand that now, I broke loose and everything starts all over again. This suggests that passion continued to nest in the soul. So how can you say after that that smoking is not a sin?

The Apostle Paul says: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible to me, but nothing should possess me” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Smoking is contrary to God's plan for man, like any nonsense

Of course, smoking is a sin. Like all meaningless things. What's the point of smoking? What good does a person get from him? No sense and nothing good. And the Lord created everything wisely and meaningfully. “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). This means that smoking is contrary to God's plan for a person, like everything that is senseless and unnecessary.

Let's not forget that smoking brings many different harms to a person. And everything that harms a person, torments him, is also displeasing to the Lord. What harm it is, we all know very well. This is the destruction of health, given by God for the work of saving our souls, and material damage when we spend money on nonsense, but we could spend it on good things, for example, give alms.

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.

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.

Who are you if you deliberately destroy the gift of God?

Each of us roughly knows what a pack of cigarettes looks like. It says in large letters: "Smoking kills." From this we can already conclude whether it is a sin to use something that kills us. Of course it is.

Often people turn to the Lord with a request for health. And most of our prayers are also about health to some extent. And we wish each other good health. And do we keep the health that the Lord has given us? How many of us go in for sports, do exercises in the morning? I think few. We eat before bed, although we know that this should not be done. We consume food in excess, realizing that this will lead to excess weight and health problems. And we must keep what the Lord has given. The health that is. Smoking will not improve your health.

If a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God?

We all understand perfectly well what risks accompany a person who smokes: these are oncological diseases, and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and impaired brain activity ... Previously, smokers did not know about how tobacco undermines health. And if you know that smoking harms you, but you smoke, you are committing a sin: you are deliberately destroying your health. And if a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God? And how to ask God for health with the same lips with which you just smoked a cigarette? This is some kind of nonsense. A glaring contradiction. And the Lord calls us to integrity, integrity of thinking above all. Why do we read the Gospel? So that our mind thinks according to the gospel, so that we are in Christ.

So smoking is a sin. Moreover, a terrible sin, causing damage to God-given health.

Orthodox layman Aleksey Kulaev shares with us his personal experience of getting rid of smoking. His pamphlet describes every step of this difficult struggle. Here are collected excerpts from the Fathers of the Church and ascetics of piety about smoking.

How I Quit Smoking (An Orthodox Layman's Experience of Combating the Sins of Smoking)

Moscow 2004
Blessing of the Counseling Center in the name of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt
The confessor and head of the Center is Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov), Doctor of Medical Sciences,
Professor

Text, compilation - Alexey Kulaev, all rights reserved, 2004

Foreword

The reason for the appearance of this small book was that sometimes you have to tell those who want to quit smoking the same thing. And that's pretty boring. In addition, you can’t remember everything in a conversation and you can miss something important. Therefore, if this work helps someone get rid of this slavery (which oppresses more and more over the years) and the forgotten joy of being the “non-smoking era” returns to the person, then it will become clear why I shared my experience. You still have to quit smoking, not in “this” world - so in “the other”, and a person has to choose what is better: either do it voluntarily here (breaking with this stupid habit forever) or suffer forever from the inability to satisfy his passion “there”

So, let's begin.

Behind you are several attempts to quit smoking “immediately”, maybe some other “coding”, different nicotine patches, etc. Therefore, it is time to stop and seriously think about the fact that the war is going to be hard and long. But the reward is great for that, i.e. the return of bodily and spiritual health, a feeling of freshness, an increase, as they say, in the “general tone”, efficiency, creative forces, and much more. In my case, this is the disappearance of headaches and heartaches. And my friends told me that I became more friendly. In my opinion, the lost qualities simply return to those who quit smoking.
This is worth fighting for.
Waking up in the morning, without bad breath, with completely restored strength during the night, with gratitude in the heart, the thought appears: “Glory to Thee, Lord!”

STEP #1 How to “firmly” decide to stop smoking.

Once, in 1991, a pious woman who publishes Orthodox literature surprised me very much in a conversation with a message that she had once smoked, and for a long time, for twenty years. (I smoked “seriously” for the same amount of time, from the age of 15 to 35). And in the end, she decided to quit. Coming to the service in the temple, she prayed something like this: “Lord, I don’t want and I can’t quit smoking, but I will still come to You and ask that this happen. You, Lord, you yourself, please deal with this situation. By sharing such a peculiar prayer, she planted in me a seed of faith that the same thing could happen to me. But it took me another four whole years to become churched to such an extent that I began to fight seriously.

STEP #2 Where should the poor smoker go?

In 1995, in mid-April, my friend Anton and I got together and early in the morning went to the glorious city of Serpukhov, to the Vysotsky Monastery, where the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Inexhaustible Chalice” is located. By that time, Anton (smoking experience of 6 years) had already quit smoking. It was already the fifth time he went to this monastery, and I for the first time. And, in general, for the first time I went to the miraculous icon. A bright morning with a bright sun forgotten during the winter, the breath of antiquity and the reverence that you already feel on the way to this monastery, when you see only its walls, everything disposed to prayer. That indescribable feeling of holiness that grips a person when he is near the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, the marvelous monastic service, the inexplicable genuine confidence that the Lord Himself is really present there, in the altar, then inspired in me the expectation of future changes. This expectation was, as it were, reinforced by the promise of the Most Pure One, born in my heart, that I would definitely receive not only what I asked for, but also many more wonderful gifts of God, which a person cannot even suspect.

After the Liturgy, on Sundays, a prayer service for health is served before the icon, and then holy water is distributed to everyone who wishes. Having stocked up with a large number of containers, all Orthodox are simultaneously eager to fill them, and therefore it is more prudent to wait a little on the sidelines. Since water is constantly supplied to the vats through a hose, there will still be enough for everyone. There you can also order a commemoration of health at the liturgy and prayers even for a whole year, for yourself and for your relatives and friends suffering from addictions to alcohol, drug addiction and smoking.

Even then, the monastery had already collected two bags of letters from thousands of grateful pilgrims who received healing from these, alas, the most common ailments, after fervent prayers at the holy image. There are cases when prolonged commemoration of health brought amazing results. Those of little faith and atheists, detractors and scoffers of Christianity, became believers and forever parted with destructive passions through the prayers of their loved ones and the monks of the monastery.

I tried to drink the holy water brought from Serpukhov every morning for the entire time I quit smoking. The instant miracle I was expecting did not happen and I did not succeed in quitting smoking right away. But for that, a dislike for strong drinks soon appeared, with which I sometimes had problems, and since then I have not consumed anything stronger than Cahors.

On Sunday, at about 7 o'clock, by train from the Kursk railway station to the station "Serpukhov" (travel time 1 hour 50 minutes). Bus number 5 stops right behind the station building on the square (10-15 minutes).

STEP #3 First norm. The speed of running towards death decreases.

After a trip to Serpukhov, I had another conversation with my confessor about smoking, and, quite unexpectedly for me, the priest gave me an obedience - to smoke no more than 10 cigarettes a day. Having a habit of smoking at least a pack, and sometimes one and a half, 10 cigarettes a day seemed like some unrealistic figure. But there is nothing to do, and for a start I refused the first cigarette. It was a ritual morning cigarette on the way to work from the entrance to the bus stop. After some time, I managed to exclude the second morning cigarette on the way from the metro to the place of work. But then problems began, sometimes I managed not to exceed the norm, but more often it turned out the other way around. Only after three months was it possible to fix success on this figure of 10 cigarettes a day.

STEP #4 It turns out there is such a prayer

At the very beginning of the "throwing" I was very lucky. On the radio "Radonezh" one respected priest read a prayer to the Monk Ambrose of Optina "for getting rid of the passion of smoking", and I was just recording this program on a tape recorder. I quote it in full at the end of my story.
Every day I began to read it several times a day, especially when I really wanted to smoke, but it was too early according to the schedule.
Now about the schedule. I am convinced that it is better and easier to quit smoking with it than without it. Between cigarettes you make a certain interval and strictly adhere to it. I also advise you to include a prayer to St. Ambrose of Optina in the morning and evening rule, asking for a blessing from your confessor.

STEP #5 "Health Day"

Having read in one Orthodox book that it is generally forbidden to smoke on the day of Holy Communion, for the reason that particles of Communion may remain on a discarded cigarette butt, I thought hard and decided to try to arrange a “Health Day” on Sunday after Communion. Naturally, he asked for blessings from his father. After the service (unless, of course, you don’t just stand, but try to pray), you don’t really feel like smoking, but when you come home and have dinner, then it starts to “pull”. Here is the time to resort to prayer to the Monk Ambrose of Optina, to reading the Gospel and then do some all-consuming activities or outdoor activities, creativity, reading, etc. At the same time, you can gnaw all sorts of crackers or seeds (pumpkin seeds, in my opinion, are better) .
When for the first time “Health Day” was a success and I went to bed without smoking from sunrise to sunset, the first experience of a new (long-forgotten old) life appeared, a long-forgotten feeling of purity. Although drawn to a cigarette, but purchased was more expensive.

STEP #6 Schedule (on the wall or on the cabinet)

When I stopped going beyond the "hot ten", the next obedience from my father was the transition to the norm of 5 cigarettes a day. But since I knew that I had no strength for such a feat, I asked for a blessing for at least 7 cigarettes. And then he continued to fight. It took another 2 months to get used to this norm. Gradually increasing the intervals between cigarettes, I came to the conclusion that it is best to keep the norm at 7, and then at 5 cigarettes, if the first cigarette is smoked as late as possible.

Fathers of the Church and ascetics of piety about smoking

Saint Theophan the Recluse

SMOKING
1. How to look at it
Smoking is a stupid business; there is as much moral here as there is empty predilection and perceived harm. The last two features are difficult for smokers to recognize and difficult to explain to non-smokers.
Strongly indecent, but decency and indecency, the same as people, change.
Tolerate a bad habit, but don't turn it into a sin.
Praying that your daughter will wean is a good thing. But this need not be put in a special form. Whenever you pray, call on God. And He will arrange as His holy will pleases. (Issue 8, pis. 1230, p. 12)
2. Harm from him
Good to quit smoking. It is not only empty, but gradually erodes health, spoiling the blood and clogging the lungs. This is a gradual self-animation.

But there is no advice for this, and there never is, except to decide more strongly. There is no other way.
To smoke or not to smoke is an indifferent matter, at least our and common conscience considers it so.

But when non-smoking is bound by a promise, then it enters into the moral order and becomes a matter of conscience, the failure of which cannot but trouble it. Here is the enemy and salted you. That's right, you did a good job. The enemy advised you to put a decision, and then knocked you down to violate this word. That's the whole story! Please study and continue to look both ways. What to bind yourself with a vow? You need to say: wait, let me try to quit. God willing, and I will. Have you met the advice of the holy elders: do not bind yourself with a vow? That's exactly the sort of thing it's about. (Issue 2, pis. 369, p. 240)

Rev. Ambrose of Optina

“You write that you cannot stop smoking tobacco. What is impossible from man is possible with the help of God: it is only worth firmly deciding to leave, recognizing harm from it for soul and body; for tobacco weakens the soul, multiplies and intensifies the passions, darkens the mind, and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the sickness of the soul from tobacco smoking. I advise you to use spiritual medicine against this passion: confess in detail all your sins from the age of seven and throughout your life, and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and read daily, standing, the Gospel by chapter or more, and when melancholy sets in, then read again until longing will not pass; attack again - and read the Gospel again. “Or instead, put 33 big bows in private, in memory of the Savior’s earthly life and in honor of the Holy Trinity.”

Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the sickness of the soul from tobacco smoking.

Elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer

Once a father visited the Elder, who had a very sick daughter, and asked for his prayers. Father Paisios said: “All right, I’ll pray, but do something for the health of the child, if you can’t pray properly. At least give up smoking, make at least this compulsion for yourself. And he readily left cigarettes and a lighter right on the stasidia in the church of the Elder.

Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer

“If some consider tobacco smoking as not violating the norms of decency and good manners, then let them at least listen to modern ethical philosophers who very strongly condemn such opinions, rightly asking, in what way is politeness and good manners manifested here? Has anyone seen a rational living being smoking a pipe filled with smoking and foul-smelling grass, and emitting whole clouds of fetid tobacco smoke, as if it were a burning furnace? In this form, a person is likened to a dragon, and this mythical beast allegorically depicts the devil "(...).

Smoking is a spiritual passion: by nature, it is unusual for a person to smoke in the same way as, say, eating, drinking, having a family. Perhaps we can say that smoking is a kind of antipode of prayer. Prayer is called by the holy fathers the breath of the soul. Concentrating a person's mind in himself and in God, she gives him true peace, purification of the mind and heart, a feeling of spiritual strength and vigor. Smoking, associated with the breath of the body, causes surrogates for these feelings. And the very symbol of prayer - smoking fragrant incense, very clearly expresses the opposite of the fragrance of incense - the use of a fetid devil's potion.
“During the services of God they burn with incense, how can the slaves of sin not invent a kind of incense? The first is pleasing to God, and the second should be pleasing to God's enemy, the devil."

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

“Instead of the fragrance of the censer in the temples, the world has invented its own tobacco fragrance, and diligently fumigates itself with it greedily, almost eats and swallows it, and breathes it, and smokes its insides and its dwellings with it, produces disgust for the blessings

Man has perverted the very pleasures of the senses. For smell and taste, and partly for breathing itself, he invented and burns almost incessantly pungent 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, and first of all is saturated with this stench himself, — and here you are, the constant coarsening of your feelings and your heart by the constantly swallowed up smoke cannot but affect the subtlety of the heart’s feelings, it imparts to it carnality, coarseness, sensuality.

Oh, how carefully the devil and the world sow with their tares the field of Christ, which is the Church of God. Instead of the Word of God, the word of the world is zealously sown, instead of incense, tobacco. Poor Christians! They have completely fallen away from Christ.

Reverend Lev of Optina

... Once among those present there was a man who confessed that he had not fulfilled the senile order. He did not quit smoking, as the Elder ordered him to. Father Leo sternly ordered the man to be taken out of his cell.

Saint Silouan of Athos

In 1905, Elder Silouan of Athos spent several months in Russia, frequently visiting monasteries. On one of these train journeys, he took a seat opposite the merchant, who, with a friendly gesture, opened his silver cigarette case 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 is good to break the tension in work and rest for a few minutes. It is convenient when smoking to conduct a business or friendly conversation and, in general, in the course of life ... ". And then, trying to convince Father Siluan to take a cigarette, he continued to speak in favor of smoking.

Then, nevertheless, Father Silouan decided to say: “Sir, before you light a cigarette, pray, say one “Our Father”. To this the merchant replied: "Praying before smoking somehow doesn't work." Father Siluan remarked in response: “So, it is better not to do any deed before which there is no undisturbed prayer.”

Saint Philaret of Moscow (Drozdov)

"Quit your smoky habit! It will not be easy for you, but do not rely on yourself: call on God for help and for God at once - by all means immediately - cut off evil!

“Did A. give up his smoky habit? And if even secretly follows it, it will not be good. I wish that he won victory over the worthless grass and smoke.

“Is it permissible for a servant of the Christian altar to bring a stench to it at the unnatural whim of consumed poisonous grass, and should not one preparing for this service first beware so as not to leave in himself a habit that is inconsistent with the dignity of service?”

Priest Alexander Elchaninov

From letters to youth
The baseness and vulgarity of motives for beginners to smoke is to be like everyone else, the fear of ridicule, the desire to give yourself weight. At the same time - the psychology of a coward and a swindler. Hence the alienation from family and friends. Aesthetically, this is vulgarity, especially unbearable for girls. Psychologically, smoking opens the door to everything forbidden, vicious.

Smoking and any anesthesia overshadow our sense of purity, chastity. The first cigarette is the first fall, the loss of purity. It is not false puritanism, but a direct feeling and a deep conviction of this that prompt me to tell you this. Ask any smoker - undoubtedly, the beginning of smoking was for him in some sense a fall.

Metropolitan Macarius (Nevsky) of Moscow

“An addiction to one will entail an addiction to another: from smoking tobacco, a young man passes to wine; from one glass of wine - to drunkenness; from wine to cards and other passionate games; from here - to idleness, to theft, to robbery; and from here the road to the prison.

We, approaching the new century, are we already standing on an inclined plane to roll down it irrevocably? Have we children of the nineteenth century gone so far in disregard for the good old and holy customs that the twentieth century will not give us or our descendants a return to these good customs? Is it possible that the zealots of piety have lost the hope of ever seeing the progressive people of our Christian society living the same life with a simple, but kind and, for the most part, devout people, with their churches, with their posts, with their holy antiquity?

***
The patristic tradition tells of an ascetic of piety who labored during the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. This schemer once had a vision of an unclean spirit who said that soon people would incense with his (unclean) mouths. The ascetic wrote: “Will people put coals in their mouths?” The demons testify to the same thing now: “Smokers have not only my smoke, but also fire” - From the notes of Hieromonk Panteleimon.

Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy)

Apocalypse of petty sin

But I have against you that you left your first love. (.)

A petty sin, like tobacco, has become such a habit of human society that society provides him with all sorts of conveniences. Where can you not find a cigarette! Everywhere you can find an ashtray, everywhere there are special rooms, cars, compartments - "for smokers". It would not even be an exaggeration to say that the whole world is one huge room, or rather one huge car in interstellar spheres: "for smokers." “Smoke” - everyone sins petty and calmly: the old and the young, the sick and the healthy, the scientists and the simple ... Before the execution, the criminal is allowed to smoke a cigarette. As if there is not enough air in the earth's atmosphere, or it is too insipid, one must create for oneself some kind of smoky, poisonous air and breathe, breathe this poison, revel in this smoke. And everyone gets drunk. To the point that "non-smoking" is almost as rare as "never lying", or "not exalting above anyone" ... The tobacco market is one of the most significant in world trade, and every year millions of people work to deliver an opportunity other millions and millions - to inhale the caustic smoke, to anesthetic their head and entire body with it.

Is it in the nature of a person to sin petty, narcotic - “to smoke”? The very question seems strange. Is it in the nature of man to go against nature? Is it natural to drug yourself? Indulgence in cocaine is banned by governments, but encouraged by tobacco. Minor sins are allowed by human law, they do not lead to prison. Everyone is guilty of them, and no one wants to throw stones at them. Tobacco, like "little cocaine", is allowed, like a little lie, like an imperceptible untruth, like killing a person in the heart or in the womb. But that is not what the Revelation of God says—the will of the Living God. The Lord does not put up with a little lie, or with a single murderous word, or with a single, adulterous look. The little grass of iniquity is as wretched before the Lord as the great tree of crime. A multitude of small sins is undoubtedly more difficult for the soul of a person than a few great ones, which are always remembered and can always be removed in repentance. And a saint, of course, is not one who does great things, but one who abstains from even the smallest crimes.

It is easier to start a fight against a great sin, it is easier to hate its approach. There is a well-known case with the righteous Anthony of Murom. Two women came to him: one lamented about her one great sin, the other self-satisfiedly testified of her non-participation in any great sins[1]. Having met the women on the road, the elder ordered the first to go and bring him a large stone, and the other to pick up more small stones. A few minutes later the women returned. Then the elder said to them: "Now take and put these stones exactly in the places where you took them from." The woman with the big stone easily found that place; from where she took the stone, the other circled in vain, looking for nests of her small pebbles, and returned to the old man with all the stones. The perspicacious Anthony explained to them that these stones express ... In the second woman, they expressed numerous sins to which she was accustomed, considered them for nothing and never repented of them. She did not remember her petty sins and outbursts of passions, and they expressed the bleak state of her soul, incapable even of repentance. And the first woman, who remembered her sin, suffered from these sins and removed it from her soul.

A lot of small, unworthy habits are mud for a person’s soul, if he affirms them in himself or realizes them as an “inevitable” evil, against which it is “not worth it” and “impossible” to fight. This is where the soul falls into the trap of the enemy of God. “I am not a saint”, “I live in the world”, “I have to live like all people” ... - the aching conscience of a believer calms himself. Man, man, of course, you are not a saint, of course, you “live in the world”, and “must live like all people”, and therefore - be born like all people; die like them, look, listen, speak like them, but why would you transgress the Law of God — “like them”? Why don't you morally smell so fragrant, "like them"? Think about it, man.
How difficult it is for the soul to move from a false, but habitual thought. The psychology of this atheistic world has become so firmly ingrained in the mental world of modern man that with regard to sin and crime against God's Laws, almost all people act in the same way - "according to the stamp." The saddest thing is that evil has inspired people to call the demands of sin "demands of nature".

The requirement of nature is to breathe, eat in moderation, keep warm, devote part of the day to sleep, but not drug your body in any way, it is pointless to become attached to a mirage, to smoke.
After all, one has only to honestly think about this question, as evil itself emerges on the surface of conscience. But the fact of the matter is that modern man has no time to think about the only important question concerning not this small 60-70 year life, but the eternity of its immortal existence in new, great conditions. Absorbed by the completely misunderstood "practice", modern man, immersed in his practical earthly life, thinks that he is in fact "practical". A sad delusion! At the moment of his inevitable (always very close to him) so-called death, he will see with his own eyes how little practical he was, reducing the question of practice to the needs of his stomach and completely forgetting his spirit.

In the meantime, a person really “has no time” to think about the elementary moral laws of his life. And, unfortunate man, he himself suffers inexpressibly from this. Like a child constantly touching the fire and crying, humanity is constantly touching the fire of sin and lust, and weeps and suffers, but touches it again and again ... not understanding its state of spiritual childishness, which in the Gospel is called "blindness", and there is a real blindness of the heart in the presence of physical eyes.

Mankind kills itself through sin, and every person does the same. Overwhelmed, agitated by evil, unbridling the lower instincts, humanity is preparing a terrible fate for itself, like every person who follows this path. Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. And over this, over the only important thing - “there is no time” to think ... “Live in the moment”, “what will be, will be” - the soul brushes aside the very truth, which inside her says that she needs to enter into herself, concentrate, examine the attachments of her heart and think about your eternal fate. The Creator of the world ordered man to take care only of the day; the world orders to take care only of “the moment”, plunging a person into a sea of worries about the whole life!

The topic of the morally small is not at all petty. Here is a reflection of God's apocalyptic reproach to the Christian world that he "forgotten his first love." How much purer and morally higher than a man is now even that shattered nature from which his body was created. How pure is a stone, ready to cry out against people who do not give glory to God, how pure are flowers, trees in their wonderful circle of life, how magnificently animals are submissive to the Law of the Creator in their purity. God's nature does not smoke, does not take drugs, does not debauch, does not corrode the God-given fruit. Wordless nature teaches a person how to carry the Cross of obedience to God amid all the storms and sufferings of this life. One needs to think about this.
Some people think that everything that happens here on earth will not have any consequences. A person with a bad conscience, of course, is more pleasant to think like that. But why deceive yourself? Sooner or later one will have to see the dazzling mystery of the purity of the universe.

We feel like "life". Do we really regard ourselves so shallowly and so shallowly understand Him Who created the worlds in order to think of this earthly vanity of life as a human being? We are much more and higher than what we are used to here, on earth, to consider not only our life, but even our ideals. But we are the grain planted in the ground. And that is why we cannot see the surface of the universe, that true picture of nature, which will be revealed to Our eyes at the moment of the so-called death, i.e. for everyone very soon.

What is death? Death is not a coffin at all, not a canopy, not a black armband, not a clay grave. Death is when the sprout of our life crawls out to the surface of the earth and stands under the direct rays of God's sun. The seed of life must die and germinate while still here, in the earth. This is the so-called "birth of the spirit" in the Gospel, the "second birth" of man. The death of the body is the sprout leaving the earth, the exit from the earth. Any person who has received even the smallest spiritual leaven, even the smallest gospel pearl "inside himself", will not expect death at all, and even far from death. For the dead in spirit, of course, coffins, graves, black bandages are all realities. And their spirit will not be able to come to the surface of true life, for they did not die on earth for themselves, for their sins.

Like an egg, we are closed from the other world by a thin shell of the body. And our shells are beating one after another… Blessed is the person who turns out to be a living organism formed for the future life. Worthy of lamentation is the state of one who turns out to be a formless liquid ... and even can be disgusting in its moral smell!

Here, on earth, we are truly in the darkness of the spirit, in its “womb”. And is it really not criminal, being in such a state, not to prepare for your real birth, but to consider your darkness as either an ideal, ultimately joyful place of life (as optimistic atheism believes), or an incomprehensible place of senseless suffering (as pessimistic atheism believes)?
Of course, the meaning is not visible to physical eyes, but it is very easy, more than easy to believe in it, after thinking about yourself and the Gospel. All nature screams about this sense; every awakened soul of man begins to cry about him.

How carefully all of us, “non-germinated” people, should treat each other… How carefully we need to protect this germination in each other, this exit to the free air, under God's sun!
A person is terribly responsible for everything, and it is difficult to theoretically imagine the misfortune of that person who, having lived atheistically on earth “as if there were nothing”, suddenly finds himself face to face with a reality that is not only brighter than our earth, but even surpasses it. all our notions of reality… Didn't the Lord suffer for these souls in the Garden of Gethsemane? In any case, he accepted the suffering of the Cross for them.

If the visible heaven did not separate us from the invisible heaven, we would shudder at those discrepancies of the spirit that exist between the angelic triumphant church and our earthly church, almost non-militant, flabby human souls. We would be horrified and understand clearly the truth that we do not understand now: what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us and what He does for each of us. We imagine his salvation almost theoretically, abstractly. But when we would see, on the one hand, the snow-white hosts of lightning pure spirits, fiery, fiery, burning with unimaginable love for God and striving for the salvation of all creation, and, on the other hand, we would see the earth with its hundreds of millions of half-humans, half- insects, with hearts directed only to the earth, people devouring each other, conceited, voluptuary, money-loving, intractable, obsessed with dark forces adhering to them, we would be horrified and tremble. And we would see a clear picture of the absolute impossibility of salvation by "natural" ways.

The arguments of the occultists about the evolutionary upward movement of reincarnating humanity would seem to us, at best, insane. We would see that the darkness over humanity is not thinning, but thickening... And we would understand what the Creator, who has become incarnate on their land, has done for people. We would see how even one grain of wheat is taken by heavenly reapers to heaven, that the slightest spark of Christ already saves this person. All the dark ones littered with unimaginable love for God and striving for the salvation of all creation, and, on the other hand, would see the earth with its hundreds of millions of half-humans, half-insects, with hearts directed only to the earth, people devouring each other, selfish, voluptuous, money-loving, intractable, obsessed with dark forces adhering to them, we would be horrified and tremble. And we would see a clear picture of the absolute impossibility of salvation by "natural" ways.

The arguments of the occultists about the evolutionary movement of reincarnating humanity in man - like a single grain in a spikelet, it nods, is cut off, only one spark is taken, and it becomes the eternal life of man. Glory to the salvation of Christ! Verily, we have nothing in ourselves except our human dignity lying in the dust. And from this dust we arise by the grace of Christ and are carried away by a spark into heaven. But we are carried away if this spark of love for God is kindled in us, if we are able to push our soul away from everything mortal in the world, we are able to notice this mortal in the smallest, and also push it away from us. Sensitivity to the smallest thing in ourselves will be an indicator of the health of our soul for us. If atoms really contain exact solar systems, then these are the ti of every sin, small and large.
Talking about the need to reject even the smallest sin leads us to the most important issue of human life: the question of life after death.

The Revelation of the Church affirms that a soul that has not been freed from one or another passion will transfer this passion to the other world, where, due to the absence of a body (until the resurrection), it will be impossible to satisfy this passion, which is why the soul will remain in the unceasing languor of self-combustion, the unceasing thirst for sin and lust without ability to satisfy her.
The grocery store, who only thought in his earthly life that he would undoubtedly suffer about food after his death, having lost carnal food, but not having lost his spiritual thirst to strive for it. The drunkard will be incredibly tormented, not having a body that can be satisfied by flooding with alcohol, and thereby calming the tormented soul a little for a while. The fornicator will experience the same feeling. Money lover too ... Smoker too.

Easy to make experience. Let the smoker not smoke for two or three days. What will he experience? A well-known torment, still softened by all the relationships and entertainments of life. But take away life with its amusements... Suffering will be aggravated. It is not the body that suffers, but the soul that lives in the body, accustomed through the body to satisfy its lust, its passion. Deprived of satisfaction, the soul suffers. So, of course, the soul of a rich sinner suffers, suddenly deprived of wealth, a peace-lover, deprived of peace, the soul of a self-lover, having received a blow to self-esteem ... How many suicides were on this basis! All this is experience, the bare experience of our earthly life. Already here, on earth, we can make experiments on our souls. Every person should be far-sighted. You need to protect your house from digging ().

Feeling this, is it really possible to calmly indulge in passions or even divide them into serious and “innocent” ones? After all, fire is still fire - both a blast furnace and a burning match. Both are painful for the person who touches them, and can be fatal. It is necessary to understand this undoubted truth that every passion, every malice, every lust is fire.

God's Law put the instincts of the human body into frames, and gives the true direction to the strong-willed and irritable energies of the soul, so that a person can conveniently and easily go to spiritualization. How to call that person who, understanding all this, calmly and frivolously treats his passions, excuses them, lulling all signs of saving sensitivity in his soul.
First of all, we must stop justifying our lust, even the smallest, we must condemn it before God and ourselves. We must pray for deliverance, for salvation. The Savior The Lord is called the Savior not in the abstract, but in reality. The Savior saves from all weaknesses and passions. He delivers. He heals. Absolutely visible, palpable. Healing, forgiving. Forgiveness is the healing of what needs to be forgiven. It is given only to those who are hungry and thirsty for this truth. Just wanting, smoldering in their own desire, healing is not given. But with a burning, flaming, imploring, striving heart, it is given. For only such people are able to appreciate the gift of God's healing, not to trample on and give thanks for it, to sensitively protect in the Name of the Savior from new temptations of evil.

Of course, smoking is a very small lust, just like a match is a small fire. But even this lust is spiritually repugnant, and it is impossible to even imagine any of the Lord's closest disciples smoking cigarettes.

“Destroy the little lust,” say the saints. There is no such acorn that does not contain an oak tree. So it is with sins. A small plant is easily weeded out. Great things require special tools for their eradication.

The spiritual meaning of smoking and all the petty "justifiable" iniquities of the spirit is licentiousness. Not only bodies, but also souls. This is a false calming of oneself (of one's "nerves", as they sometimes say, not fully realizing that the nerves are the carnal mirror of the soul). This "calming" leads to ever greater distance from true peace, from the true consolation of the Spirit. This peace is a mirage. Now - while there is a body - it must be renewed constantly. Afterwards, this narcotic sedation will be the source of painful captivity of the soul.

It is necessary to understand that, for example, “tearing off”, for example, his anger also “calms down”. But, of course, only until a new fit of anger. It is impossible to comfort oneself with the satisfaction of passion. You can calm yourself only by resisting passion, by holding back from it. You can calm yourself only by bearing the Cross of struggle against any passion, even the smallest one, the Cross of its rejection in your heart. This is the path of true, firm, faithful and - most importantly - eternal happiness. Rising above the fog, he sees the sun and the eternally blue sky. The one who has risen above the passions enters the sphere of Christ's peace, an indescribable bliss that begins already here on earth and is accessible to every person.

Mirage happiness is a cigarette. The same as getting angry with someone, being proud of someone, painting your cheeks or your lips for people, stealing a small piece of sweetness - a small penny from the church dish of God's nature. There is no need to look for such happiness. Their direct, logical continuation: cocaine, a blow to a person's face or a shot at him, a fake of value. Blessed is the man who, finding such happiness, repels it with righteous and holy anger. This demonic happiness reigning in the world is a harlot who invaded the marriage of the human soul with Christ, the God of Truth and pure blissful joy.
Every consolation outside the Spirit of the Holy Comforter is that insane temptation on which the organizers of human paradise build their dreams. The Comforter is only the Creative Spirit of the Truth of Christ.

It is impossible to pray in the spirit while smoking a cigarette. It is impossible to preach while smoking a cigarette. Before entering the temple of God, a cigarette is thrown away... but the temple of God is us.
Whoever wants every minute to be a temple of God will throw away the cigarette, like any false thought, any impure feeling. The attitude to a small spiritual movement in oneself is a thermometer of the ardor of a person's faith and his love for God.

One can imagine such a life example: tobacco, like a plant, does not have any evil in itself (like golden sand, like cotton, from which banknotes are made). Apricot is God's plant. Alcohol can be very useful to the human body at certain moments and in certain doses, not in the least contradicting the spirit, like moderate tea or coffee. Wood, matter from which furniture is made, everything is God's... But now let's take these terms in the following combination: a man is lying in an easy chair and smoking a Havana cigar, every minute sipping from a glass of apricotine standing near him... Can this person in such a state carry on a conversation? about the Living God - to pray to the Living God? Physically yes, spiritually no. Why? Yes, because this man is now dismissed, his soul has sunk in an armchair, and in a Havana cigar, and in a glass of apricotine. At this moment he has almost no soul. He, like the prodigal son of the Gospel, wanders "in distant lands." This is how a person can lose his soul. Loses her man all the time. And it’s good if he finds her again all the time, fights not to lose, trembles over his soul, as over his beloved baby. The soul is an infant of immortality, defenseless and miserable in the conditions of the world around us. How one must press one's soul to one's chest, to one's heart, how one must love it, destined for eternal life. Oh, how it is necessary to clean off even the slightest speck from it!

Now an example was presented of the impossibility of preserving one's soul by voluptuously distributing it among surrounding objects: armchairs, cigars, liquor. The example taken is especially colorful, although there are even more colorful ones in life. But if you take not colorful, but gray, but of the same loose spirit, everything will remain the same atmosphere, in which it will be a lesser sin to keep silent about Christ than to talk about Him. This is the key to why the world is silent about Christ, why neither in the streets, nor in salons, nor in friendly conversations do people talk about the Savior of the Universe, about the One Father of the world, despite the multitude of people who believe in Him.

It is not always ashamed to talk about God in front of people; Sometimes before God it is a shame to talk about Him to people. The world instinctively understands that in the situation in which it finds itself all the time, it is less of a sin to keep silent about Christ than to speak about him. And now people are silent about God. Terrible symptom. The world is flooded with legions of words, the language of man is possessed by these empty legions, and - not a word, almost not a word about God, about the Beginning, End and Center of everything.

For to speak about God is to convict oneself and the whole world at once. And if the word about God is nevertheless said, it is difficult to finish it - both in front of oneself and in front of the world.

If a person does not have an aversion to his little sins, he is spiritually unhealthy. If there is disgust, but “there is no strength” to overcome weakness, then it is left until the person shows his faith in the fight against something more dangerous for him than this weakness, and she is left to him for humility. For there are many people who look blameless, do not drink or smoke, but are similar, in the words of the Ladder, to a “rotten apple”, that is, filled with obvious or secret pride. And there is no way to humble their pride, as soon as some kind of fall. But the one who, for one reason or another, “permits” petty sins will remain outside the Kingdom of God and its laws. Such a person, “lulling” his conscience, becomes unable to cross the line of the true life of the spirit. He always remains like a young man approaching Christ and immediately departing from him with sadness, or even sometimes without sadness, but simply to ... "smoke"!

Rigorism and puritanism are alien to the evangelical spirit. Pharisaic righteousness without love is more obscure in the eyes of God than any sin. But the lukewarmness of Christians in fulfilling the commandments is just as dark. Both Pharisees and those who trade and smoke in the temple of God are equally expelled from the temple.
For the will of God is “our sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). A sensitive conscience will itself sharpen the eyesight to detect that alien dust that lies on the wounds of the soul.
The Son of God and the Son of Man gave us one commandment for thirst: "Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." In it, the Lord seems to say: People, I do not give you a measure - determine it yourself. Determine for yourself the measure of your love for My purity and your obedience to this love.

Prayer Saint Ambrose of Optina

About getting rid of the passion of smoking

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 wise 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.

Troparion, tone 5

Like a healing spring, we flow to you, Ambrose, our father, you truly instruct us on the path of salvation, protect us from troubles and misfortunes with prayers, console you in bodily and spiritual sorrows, and even more than teach humility, patience and love, pray to the Lover of Christ and Intercessor Diligently save our souls.

Kontakion, tone 2

Having fulfilled the covenant of the Chief Shepherd, thou hast inherited the grace of the elders, aching heart for all those who flow to you with faith. In the same way, we, your children, cry out to you with love: Holy Father Ambrose, pray to Christ God that our souls be saved.

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 tell anything 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!

Everyone, without exception, knows that smoking is a bad habit that negatively affects human health. However, few people thought about whether the use of tobacco is a sin. Many people believe that smoking is okay because the Bible does not specifically forbid it. As for Christianity, any church, no matter what denomination it belongs to, speaks negatively about smoking. For example, the priest John of Kronstadt argued that a burning cigarette symbolizes eternal torment in hell, which awaits all smokers who have not given up their sinful addiction. Another famous minister said that when a person smokes, tobacco smoke takes a place in his heart that is meant for God's grace.

The answer to the question of whether it is a sin or not to smoke will be given by a story from the life of St. Silouan. The attendant was on the train. A merchant entered the carriage with a cigarette in his mouth and offered tobacco to Silouan, but the priest refused. The sinner began to wonder why the fellow traveler did not want to smoke, and began to tell how smoking helps in business affairs. With a cigarette, it is easier to resolve issues, it is easier to relax and it is more fun to communicate with friends. In response to such statements, the minister suggested that the merchant read the Lord's Prayer before each puff. The man thought and said that prayer and smoking are incompatible. Then Silvanus concluded that it is necessary to refuse any deeds that are not combined with prayer.

According to all church canons, smoking is a terrible sin, since, first of all, it is a passion that will not allow a person to follow God's path, deprives him of forgiveness, salvation, and the most important thing - eternal life.

According to the clergy, smoking is the same destructive passion that leads to new mental illnesses.

For example, tobacco can cause the formation of selfishness. This is pronounced in smoking parents. Fathers and mothers, following their desires, poison their children with tobacco smoke. Many allow themselves to smoke even on playgrounds, thereby poisoning themselves, their own children and other playing kids. And how many women who do not even try to quit smoking during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

Another sin that provokes the use of tobacco is discouragement. The smoker, unable to inhale, falls into a real depression. This is due to a lack of the hormone of joy and psychological dependence on nicotine. Depression leads to mental and physical illness. A person begins to apathy, all duties are performed "slipshod". This is also a sin.

Hostility and anger can also result from tobacco use. When a person wants to smoke, he becomes irritable and aggressive. The Orthodox church considers these manifestations a sin.

Another reason why the Church has a negative attitude towards smoking is that this habit leads to self-justification. Moreover, a person creates the illusion of independence, claiming that he can give up cigarettes at any time. Pride appears. Orthodoxy calls the inability to plead guilty a sin.

A Christian must give up cigarettes, because the use of tobacco products will sooner or later cease to deliver the former pleasure, and one will want something new.

Addiction to pleasure is a terrible sin. Christianity believes that it is this weakness that gives rise to drunkenness and gluttony. It turns out that cigarettes provoke insatiability in food, alcohol and sexual pleasures.

Body destruction

A smoking person allows himself immorality and allows the appearance of other weaknesses, but most importantly, he does not give a damn about his own health. The Bible says that anyone who destroys God's temple will be punished by the Almighty. God created people in his own image, so the body is the temple of the Lord. By consuming cigarettes, man destroys God's creation.

According to the church, harming one's own body is a great sin. Many priests even talk about possession in such cases. Orthodoxy believes that having smoked a cigarette, a person settles a demon in himself. With each puff, the monster becomes stronger, and it is more difficult to drive the monster out of the soul. The demon controls the smoker through addiction to nicotine. The essence dictates to a person when it is necessary to feed it, that is, to smoke.

Smoking is considered a meaningless act, and everything that does not bring benefits is called empty and sinful in the temple. If you think about it, really, what are the benefits of cigarettes? Nerves do not calm down, they only loosen them, make them addicted, and require large financial costs.

Separation from God

According to ministers, smoking is a terrible sin that separates a person from God. According to church canons, every believer must take part in the sacraments. This is confession and communion. The last action is performed only on an empty stomach. The parishioner must defend the entire service and only then accepts the "supper", the so-called church wine, symbolizing the blood of Christ and unleavened bread, personifying the body of the Messiah.

It is clear that smoking before communion is not allowed. But for a smoker accustomed to starting the day with a cigarette, this is impossible to do. A person deliberately refuses the sacrament in favor of smoking.

The Church imposed a ban on tobacco also because God commanded man to keep holiness, purity of soul, conscience and body. The cigarette does not allow you to comply with this prescription. At the physical level, cigarettes pollute the lungs, liver, and stomach. Toxic resins settle on the walls of blood vessels. On an energetic level, smoking destroys the soul and gives rise to a bunch of spiritual diseases.

Basic explanations for the sinfulness of smoking

The Orthodox Church is extremely negative about smoking. According to the priests, the sinfulness of this act lies in the fact that:

the smoker deliberately destroys himself, undermines the health of others;
the will and spirit of a person are subject to nicotine addiction;
personality degradation occurs;
after death, the soul of the smoker continues to suffer.

Priests about tobacco addiction

The sin of smoking in Orthodoxy is strongly condemned, the priests unanimously call this addiction pernicious weakness and indecency, and tobacco itself is often called the "gift of the devil."

Here are the main theses that reflect the attitude of the church towards smoking:

Every passion is generated by the sinful nature of man and the influence of the devil;
Habit brings a person to a spiritual fall, brings physical death closer;
Smoking weakens the soul;
The smoker will be able to cope with sin only when he realizes that the habit destroys him;
You can get rid of sin only with the help of God, which is why, having decided to give up cigarettes, you need to confess and take the sacrament. In addition, a person should pray every day and ask God to help get rid of addiction.

Was smoking always a sin?

Smoking began to be considered a sin not so long ago. In tsarist times, especially during the reign of Peter I, this tradition was supported by the church. That is why now many people are asking the question why it was possible before, but now it is not possible. After all, even those who are revered as saints, such as Nicholas II, smoked.

The fact is that science does not stand still. Knowledge becomes available to everyone. Now there is not a single person who would not know what harm tobacco does to health. This was not known even 100 years ago.

Modern scientists have completely dispelled the myth about the benefits of tobacco. As for the smoking saints, the leaders of Orthodoxy explain this by the fact that every person can have weaknesses. Do not forget that Nicholas II was canonized for patience for the sake of the Lord.

Greece is another stumbling block. In this country, almost everyone smokes, including church ministers. Such a massive spread of bad habits is associated with the influence of Muslim culture, where there is no ban on smoking.

Catholics have a fairly loyal attitude towards nicotine addiction. Catholicism considers this problem not a sin, but a disease that a doctor should treat. That is, the hope is not for God's help, but for a specialist and medicines.

Here is how one Catholic priest answered the question of whether it is possible to smoke: “If a doctor tells a person that cigarettes are harmful to health, then the habit must be abandoned, since the destruction of the body is a sin. If there are no health problems, then you can continue to use tobacco products further. It is only necessary to mention this during every confession.”

Priest Athanasius Gumerov answers:

The holy fathers define various diseases of the soul by the concept 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 desires 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 only 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. While 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. A smoker harms his health and the health of those present. There is probably not a single vice and perversion that they would not try to justify. Attempts to talk about the "positive" aspects of smoking look pitiful in comparison with the data available in medicine. Tobacco contains nicotine (up to 2%) - a strong poison. Sulfate of nicotine is applied to destruction of wreckers of page - x. plants. When smoking tobacco, nicotine is absorbed into the body and soon enters the brain. A person smokes every day for many years. The average smoker takes about 200 puffs a day. This is approximately 6,000 per month, 72,000 per year and over 2 million puffs in a 45-year-old smoker who started smoking at the age of 15. Such a protracted nicotine attack leads to the fact that the poison eventually finds a weak link in the body and causes a serious illness. For 30 years, a smoker smokes about 20,000 cigarettes, or about 160 kg of tobacco, ingesting an average of 800 g of nicotine. One cigarette contains approximately 6-8 mg of nicotine, of which 3-4 mg enter the bloodstream. For humans, the lethal dose of nicotine ranges from 50-100 mg (2-3 drops). A number of cancer-causing carcinogens have been found in tobacco smoke. A huge amount of tobacco and radioactive substances. When smoking one pack of cigarettes a day, a person receives a dose of radiation that is 7 times higher than the dose recognized as the maximum allowable by the International Agreement on Radiation Protection. It has been proven that radiation from tobacco origin is the main cause of cancer.

Passion is the result of the addition of human sinful will and the activity of demonic forces, although invisible, but very real. The demonic forces carefully try to hide their complicity in the fall of people. However, there are types of destructive vice in which the special role of the devil is obvious. The most impressive illustration is provided by the history of tobacco smoking. Spaniard Roman Pano in 1496 after the second voyage of H. Columbus brought tobacco seeds from America to Spain. From there, tobacco enters Portugal. The French ambassador in Lisbon Jean Nicot (from his surname got the name nicotine) in 1560 presented tobacco plants as a medicine to Queen Catherine de Medici (1519 - 1589), who suffered from migraines. The passion for tobacco quickly began to spread, first in Paris, and then throughout France. Then began the victorious march of tobacco throughout Europe. The devil strives to impose everything destructive for a person on people under the guise of “beneficial”. Among physicians in the 16th century, tobacco was considered by many to be medicinal. When evidence of the harmful effects of smoking appeared, the hobby went so far that it was no longer possible to stop the infection. At first, smoking was persecuted, and smokers were severely punished. In England, smokers were led through the streets with a noose around their necks, and stubborn ones were even executed. The English king James I in 1604 wrote the work “On the dangers of tobacco”, in which he wrote: “Smoking is disgusting for the eyesight, disgusting for the sense of smell, harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs.” Pope Urban VII excommunicated believers from the church. Other measures were also taken. However, each time the winners were smokers, tobacco manufacturers, tobacco dealers - all those who made the spread of destructive vice their profession. Knut, executions were powerless in the face of this destructive passion, the rapid spread of which strongly resembles an epidemic (more precisely, a pandemic). Some kind of power, superior to human, makes people slaves of the most harmful habit, from which the vast majority do not part until death.

In Russia, smoking appeared at the beginning of the 17th century during the Time of Troubles. It was brought by Poles and Lithuanians. Tsar Mikhail Romanov severely persecuted lovers of the devil's potion. In 1634, a decree was issued according to which smokers received sixty stick blows on the soles. The second time the nose was cut off. According to the Code of 1649, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich provided for punishment for those who had tobacco found: to beat with a whip until it was recognized where the tobacco came from. Severe measures were envisaged against traders: cut their noses and exile them to distant cities. The import of tobacco into the country was prohibited. Efforts to stop were futile. Tsar Peter I was a smoking lover. AT In 1697 all prohibitions were lifted. Peter I gave the British a monopoly on the tobacco trade in Russia. The swiftness with which this destructive vice began to spread among the people leads to the saddest thoughts. Now e Every year about 250 billion cigarettes are produced in Russia and another 50 billion pieces are imported. Thus, the country consumes 300 billion. Russia currently ranks first in the world in terms of the growth of tobacco smoking. A significant number of smokers are teenagers. And one more bleak feature of our country is the feminization of smoking. According to the World Health Organization, 70% of men and 30% of women in Russia smoke. Smoking has a particularly devastating effect on the female body. According to the materials of the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America, women who smoke, all other things being equal (the researchers took into account the age of patients, the length of smoking, the type of tobacco products used, and other factors), develop lung cancer about twice as often as men. Canadian doctors, based on statistics collected in Vancouver and Quebec, claim that women who start smoking before the age of 25 have a 70% increased chance of developing breast cancer. Specialists in the field of social psychology are well aware of the power of influence on a person's environment. Now a significant part of our urban environment is made up of huge billboards advertising a poison that destroys health. At least for a second, at least for a moment, do people involved in the mass poisoning of people think that at the Last Judgment they will have to answer for everything.

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 disease of smoking: “You write that you cannot stop smoking tobacco. What is impossible from a person is possible with God’s help; you just have to firmly decide to leave it, realizing the harm to soul and body from it, since tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys the bodily health by slow death.—Irritability and longing are the consequences of the sickness of the soul from tobacco smoking.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, 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 big bows, 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. “When, out of love for God, you desire to do something, put death as the limit of your desire; and thus, in fact, you will be able to ascend to the level of martyrdom in the struggle with every passion, and you will not suffer any harm from meeting you inside this limit, if you endure to the end and do not relax. The thought of a weak mind makes the strength of patience weak; and a firm mind to the one who follows his thoughts even imparts strength that nature does not have” (St. Isaac the Syrian).