SR
← Orthodox Confession (Pravoslavnoe Ispovedanie)/Book 2 · Часть вторая. О надежде
Chapter 1MogilaPravIsp.2.1

Часть вторая. О надежде

What is Hope?

Hope is defined as a true confidence in God, inspired by His grace, leading to perseverance in seeking forgiveness and blessings.

Question 1. What is hope? Answer. Hope is a genuine confidence in God, planted in a person's heart by God's own inspiration and illumination. It ensures they'll never despair of God's grace helping them—whether in the forgiveness of sins or in the granting of every request, whenever they ask for some good thing, whether temporal or eternal.12 The Apostle speaks of it this way: "So don't throw away your confidence, which carries a great reward" (Heb.34 10:35). And in another place: "For in hope we were saved.5 But hope for what you already see isn't really hope at all. Who hopes for what they already see? But if we hope for what we don't see, then we wait for it with patient endurance" (Rom.6 8:24–25).

The Source of Our Hope

Hope is firmly rooted in Jesus Christ, through whom we receive all things, and is sustained by God's grace.

Question 2. What makes a person's hope sure and steady?7 Answer. All our hope is our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle says: "by the command of God our Savior and of the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope" (1 Tim.8 1:1). For it's through Him that we receive everything, as Christ Himself teaches: "and whatever you ask (of the Father) in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13). This is precisely how God's goodness is recognized: that through Christ both grace and truth have been given to us, as Holy Scripture says: "for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John9 1:17). It's on this grace that our whole hope rests.

Strengthening Hope Through Practice and Sacrament

Hope is strengthened by keeping God's commandments, receiving the Eucharist, and through unceasing prayer.

In the same way, we ground a great hope on keeping God's commandments, since Christ said: "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him" (John10 14:21). Our hope is also strengthened through receiving the awesome and most pure Mysteries — that is,11 —12 the Body and Blood of Christ, which makes our Lord dwell within us. For he himself says: "Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me, and I in him" (John 6:56). Finally, it's strengthened through unceasing prayer, as the Apostle teaches: "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray" (James13

Hope in Prayer and the Beatitudes

Hope is further cultivated by praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping oneself in God's love, and by embracing the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes through practicing virtues.

5, 13).14 And another Apostle says: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude1516 1, 20–21). Question 3. What do we need to consider to understand this second part of the Orthodox Confession? Answer. In this second part of the Orthodox Confession, the right things to take up are the Lord's Prayer and the nine Beatitudes.17 For if we want to receive something from God, we have to ask him for it first in faith, and then in hope that he will certainly give us what we ask, as the Apostle says: "He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it" (1 Thess.18 5:24). In the same way, we make the Beatitudes our own by hope — that is,19 when we practice the virtues in the hope that we'll receive what the Beatitudes promise.

Read the original Russian

Вопрос 1. Что есть надежда?

Ответ. Надежда есть истинное дерзновение к Богу, дарованное сердцу человека чрез вдохновение и просвещение от Бога; дабы он никогда не отчаивался в содействии ему благодати Божией, как по отношению к прощению грехов, так и исполнению каждого прошения, когда просит какого-либо блага, или временного, или вечного. О ней Апостол говорит так: «не отлагайте ибо дерзновения вашего, еже имат мздовоздаяние велико» (Евр. 10 35). И в другом месте: «упованием бо спасохомся. Упование же видимое несть упование: еже бо видит кто, что и уповает. Аще ли егоже не видим, надеемся, терпением ждем» (Рим. 8, 24–25).

Вопрос 2. Что соделывает надежду несомненною и твердою в человеке?

Ответ. Вся надежда наша есть Господь наш Иисус Христос, как говорит Апостол: «по повелению Бога Спаса нашего и Господа Иисуса Христа упования нашего» (1Тим. 1, 1). Ибо чрез Него мы все получаем, как учит Сам Христос: "и еже аще что просите (от Отца) во имя Мое, то сотворю, да прославится Отец в Сыне» (Ин. 14, 13). В том и познается Божественная благость, что чрез Христа дана нам и благодать и истина, по словам Священного Писания: «яко закон Моисеем дан быст: благодать (же) и истина Иисус Христом быст» (Ин. 1, 17). На сей-то благодати основывается вся надежда наша.

Так же и на соблюдении заповедей Божиих мы утверждаем великую надежду; поскольку Христос сказал: «Имеяй заповеди Моя и соблюдаяй их, той есть любяй Мя: а любяй Мя возлюблен будет Отцем Моим, и Аз возлюблю его и явлюся ему Сам» (Ин. 14, 21). Еще надежда наша утверждается чрез причащение страшным и пречистым Тайнам, т. е. Телу и Крови Христовой, что вселяет в нас Господа нашего. Ибо Сам Он говорит: «Ядый Мою Плоть и пияй Мою Кровь во Мне пребывает, и Аз в нем» (Ин. 6, 56). Наконец, чрез непрестанную молитву, как учит Апостол: «Злостраждет ли кто в вас; да молитву деет» (Иак.

5, 13). И другой Апостол говорит: «Вы же, возлюбленнии, святою вашею верою назидающе себе, Духом Святым молящеся, сами себе в любви Божией соблюдайте, ждуще милости Господа нашего Иисуса Христа в жизнь вечную» (Иуд. 1, 20–21).

Вопрос 3. Что нужно рассмотреть для уразумения сей второй части Православного Исповедания?

Ответ. В сей второй части Православного Исповедания прилично рассмотреть молитву Господню и девять блаженств. поскольку, если желаем что получить от Бога, о том должны просить Его сначала с верою, потом с надеждою, что Он непременно даст нам просимое, как говорит Апостол: «верен призвавый вас, иже и сотворит» (1Фес. 5, 24). Равным образом и блаженства мы усвояем себе надеждою, т. е. когда исполняем добродетели в той надежде, что получим обетования блаженств.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Russian дерзновение (Greek παρρησία) means bold, unashamed freedom of access before God. Rendered 'confidence' to keep both the boldness and the trust; 'boldness' alone would lose the element of assurance the definition depends on.
  2. 2 ↩дабы introduces purpose/result ('so that'), and как... так и is a correlative 'both... and'; both are preserved so the definition's scope — forgiveness and petition alike — stays explicit.
  3. 3 ↩The Slavonic quotation reads не отлагайте ибо ('for do not lay aside'), where the standard text has убо ('therefore/so'). Translated as the inferential убо, which alone fits the syntax of Heb 10:35; ибо appears to be a copying slip.
  4. 4 ↩дерзновение is rendered 'confidence' here to match its use in the definition above (s2), keeping the citation and the definition visibly linked.
  5. 5 ↩The Slavonic switches from дерзновение to упование/надежда here; both are rendered 'hope' in this citation, since Rom 8:24–25 turns on the single idea of hope in what is unseen.
  6. 6 ↩терпением covers both patience and steady endurance under strain; 'patient endurance' keeps the active weight the Slavonic carries rather than mere waiting.
  7. 7 ↩The Russian pair «несомненною и твердою» is a doublet: the first term denies doubt (sure, unshakable), the second denies collapse under pressure (firm, steady). "Sure and steady" keeps both forces without the archaic "undoubting and firm."
  8. 8 ↩The Slavonic quotation reads «упования нашего» — "our hope/expectation"; rendered "our hope" to keep the link with надежда (hope) that governs this whole chapter.
  9. 9 ↩Божественная благость is rendered "God's goodness" rather than "divine benevolence" — благость here is the settled goodness of God shown in the gift of grace, not a passing kindness.
  10. 10 ↩«поскольку» is causal-evidential ("since/because"); rendered "since" to keep the ground-of-hope logic explicit.
  11. 11 ↩«страшным» here means awe-inspiring/dread-inducing in the liturgical sense (as in "the awesome Mysteries"), not "frightening"; «пречистым» is the standard liturgical epithet "most pure." «Тайнам» (Mysteries) is the Eastern term for the Sacrament; kept as "Mysteries" to preserve Orthodox specificity.
  12. 12 ↩The source fragment is the second half of the abbreviation «т. е.» ("that is"); its sense was carried into s3, so this segment holds only the connecting dash.
  13. 13 ↩«Злостраждет» renders κακοπαθεῖ — suffering hardship or affliction, not merely illness (the following verse treats sickness separately).
  14. 14 ↩This is not a sentence but the tail of a scripture citation split by the sentence segmenter: it completes "(Иак. 5, 13)" — James 5:13 — attached to the previous section's closing quotation about prayer. Rendered as-is so no reference digits are lost.
  15. 15 ↩The quotation is given in Church Slavonic in the source; rendered here into contemporary English while keeping the solemn cadence proper to quoted Scripture. The parenthesis is left open because the chapter-and-verse digits fall in the following segment.
  16. 16 ↩«назидающе себе» is rendered "building yourselves up" (edification), not "instructing yourselves"; «милости» is kept as "mercy" per lexeme policy, since divine mercy is in view.
  17. 17 ↩Russian "прилично" here has its older sense of "it is fitting/appropriate" rather than the modern "decently"; rendered as "the right things to take up."
  18. 18 ↩"поскольку" is causal, grounding the preceding sentence; rendered "For" to keep the logical link, since the source sentence begins mid-thought with a lowercase conjunction.
  19. 19 ↩s5 and s6 together carry the single Russian abbreviation "т. е." (то есть, "that is"); the segmenter split it at the period. The full sense is placed here.

Orthodox Confession (Pravoslavnoe Ispovedanie) companion

Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat

Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.

Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.

  • A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
  • One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
  • Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →