Како кормити приходящих в дому з благодарением
The Sanctity of the Table
Meals should be accompanied by prayer and spiritual conversation to invite the presence of angels rather than demons.
When you set the table, the priests first glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, then the Virgin Mother of God; and when they eat with thanksgiving and in silence, or with spiritual conversation, the angels stand there invisibly and write down the good deeds, and the food and drink become sweet. But if someone starts criticizing the food and drink set before them, it turns into dung that they are eating. And if there are filthy talk and lewd, shameful words and joking and every kind of mockery, or gusli-playing and dancing and clapping and leaping and all sorts of games and demonic songs — then just as smoke drives away bees, so the angels of God leave that table and that stinking conversation, and the demons rejoice and come, having gotten their way, and everything that pleases them is done. And so those people carry on in disorder, and amuse themselves with dice and chess and every kind of demonic game; they cast God's gift — the food and drink and all kinds of fruit — into contempt, spill it, throw it at one another, pour it over one another, and in every way mock God's gift. And the demons write down their deeds, bring them to Satan, and together rejoice at the ruin of Christians — and all those deeds will stand before them on the day of the Dread Judgment.12
Warnings from History and Scripture
The author cites the biblical example of the Israelites in the wilderness to warn against the dangers of gluttony and lewd behavior.
Woe to those who do such things! When the Jews sat down to eat and drink in the wilderness, gorged themselves, and got drunk, then rose up to play and commit fornication, the earth swallowed twenty-three thousand of them.✦3
Gratitude as a Spiritual Discipline
Christians are called to eat with thanksgiving, avoiding criticism of food and honoring it as a gift from God.
O people, be afraid! Do the will of God as it is written in the law. O Lord, keep every Christian from this evil disorder, so that they might eat and drink to the glory of God rather than gorging themselves, getting drunk, or doing empty, foolish things. If you set food or drink before someone, or if it is set before you, you must not criticize any food by saying it is rotten, sour, bland, salty, bitter, musty, raw, or overcooked, or cast any kind of blame on it at all. Instead, you should praise every food as God's gift and taste it with thanksgiving; then God will smell the fragrance of a sweet savor and turn it to sweetness. And if some food or drink is unfit, correct the household servants who prepared it so that it will not happen that way again.✦45
Read the original Latin
Егда трапезу предпоставляеши вначале священници Отца и Сына и Святаго Духа прославляют потом Девицу Богородицу, и егда ядяху з благодарением и с молчанием или з духовною беседою, тогда Аггели невидимо предстоят и написуют дела добрая и ества и питие в сладость бывает аще начнет предпоставленую еству и питие похулять тогда мотыло обращается сии вкушают и аще скаредныя речи и блудные срамословие и смехотворение, и всякое глумление или гусли и плесание и плескание, и скокание и всякие игры и песни бесовские тогда якоже дым отгонит пчелы такоже и отыдут, Аггели Божии от тоя трапезы и смрадныя беседы и возрадуются беси и приидут волю свою улучив и вся угодная творится им да такоже бесчиньствуют и зернью и шахматы, и всякими играми бесовскими тешатся, дар Божии еству и питие, и всякие овощи, в поругание помещут и проливают друг друга шибают и обливают всячески поругаются дару Божию, а дияволи записуют дела их приносят к сотане и вкупе радуются погибели християньския и та вся дела предстанут в день Страшнаго Суда. О горе деющим таковая егда жидове седоша ясти в пустыни и пити, и обьядшася и опившеся и восташа играти, и блуд творити, и тогда пожре земля их двадесят тысящь и три тысящи. О устрашитеся людие творите волю Божию якоже есть в законе писано а от сего злаго бесчиния соблюди Господи всякаго, християнина, ести бы и пити в славу Божию а не обьядатися ни упиватися ни пустошных творити и аще пред кого поставляеши еству или питие и всякое брашно или пред тобя поставят, всякаго брашна не подобает похулити глаголати гнило или кисло или пресно или солоно или горко или затхлося или сыро или переварено или какую ни буди хулу возлогати, но подобает дар Божии всякое брашно похваляти, и со благодарением, вкушати ино Бог обоняет вонею благо ухания и в сладость претворити и аще которая ества или питие непотребно ино о том наказывати домочадцов кто то делал штобы впред таково не было.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.32.6;1Cor.10.7-1Cor.10.8 — And they rose early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to celebrate. 1Cor.10.7 — Do not become idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." 1Cor.10.8 — Neither let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
- ↩1Cor.10.31 — So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Notes
- 1 ↩мотыло: dung/filth; the sense is that carping at God's gift turns the meal into refuse for those who eat it.
- 2 ↩Девицу Богородицу rendered as Virgin Mother of God (standard Orthodox title Theotokos).
- 3 ↩The source conflates wilderness episodes (eating/drinking and rising to play; sexual sin; earth swallowing; the 23,000 figure known from 1 Cor 10:8). Translated as written, not harmonized to a single biblical verse.
- 4 ↩а от сего... соблюди Господи: read as a brief petition to the Lord interrupting the address to the people (vocative Christians / imperative keep), then continuing the moral instruction.
- 5 ↩пресно: bland/unleavened/unsavory; rendered 'bland'. наказывать: instruct/correct/discipline household members — rendered 'correct' rather than purely punitive 'punish'.
Domostroi (The Household Orderer) companion
A prayer for every moment, already on your phone
Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.
Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.
- One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
- Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
- Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere