In church practice, there are many different rites and sacraments that have their own special purpose. One of them is Unction. What it is, how the rite occurs, how it is prepared for it and what you need to know - all of this will be discussed in this article.

What it is?

Before you figure out how to prepare for the Unction, it is worthwhile to understand what it is. So, the Blessing of God (or the Unction) is a special one which is intended for the mentally ill or people with serious illnesses for their healing. Everything happens by sevenfold anointing with oil, as well as by reading special prayers. Why is this sacrament so called - Unction? Because this requires several priests, i.e., a cathedral.

Why is this needed?

It is worth saying that the diseases themselves, according to the religious version, are a consequence of the sinful life of a person. This rite is intended primarily to forgive sins and thereby heal the patient from the disease. However, the question may arise: after all, for the remission of sins does the sacrament of Confession exist? But there are sins that a person forgot or did not mention, or does not even consider his action to be sinful. These are all the nuances that are taken into account at the sacrament of Unification.

Who is this available to?

Who can be unified? So, this is any baptized Orthodox person. However, children under 7 years old are not exposed to this sacrament. It is worth mentioning that most people have the wrong opinion that only the dying are subject to the Unction, who need to forgive sins (variation: after the unification, a person will die in a short time). This is not at all true, this sacrament is called to cleanse oneself from sins and bring them back to life, and not send a person to another world.

Training

So, how to prepare for the Unction correctly? What do you need to know for this?

1. It is very important to receive the blessing of a priest for such an important sacrament.
2. You need to find out when it will be held. You will also need to sign up for the queue.
3. Buy a candle in the candle shop at the church.
4. Bring a bottle of vegetable oil and a napkin (to wipe the remains of oil) with you to the temple.
5. It is better to pre-confess.

Time frame

So, Unction. When is this sacrament held? It is worth saying that during Lent it can be held several times. However, situations are possible when they depart from this rule, and the sacrament is performed when it is absolutely necessary for a person.

A place

How to prepare for the Unction? So, you need to know where this sacrament can take place. During Lent, the priest conducts all actions in the temple. If a person does not have the opportunity to get to the church, then the Unction can be held at home, at the bedside of a sick or dying person.

How does the sacrament itself happen?

Having figured out how to prepare for the Unction, information about how the sacrament itself goes on will also be important for many. Thus, the clergyman will read seven texts from the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles. After each reading, the priest must anoint the brow, cheeks, hands and chest of the person who is being gathered with holy oil - oil. After reading the last verse, the priest lays the revealed gospel on the patient’s head and prays for the forgiveness of all his sins.

Nuances

People may also have other questions regarding this sacrament. So, how else should preparations for the Unction be done?

About oil

If the Unction was held in 2014, what to do with the olive oil that remains? How long can it be used? It is believed that it does not have an expiration date. From time to time, a person himself can crosswise smear his sore spots with it. It can also be added to food. The priests say that if you use the oil with faith and reverence, then for every such person the grace of God will descend.

Now, at the beginning of Lent, many church people are embarking on one of the seven sacraments of the Church - the sacrament of Holiness, or Unction. However, the mystery of the Unification is not too well known to a wide circle of people. That is why the strangest prejudices and misconceptions are associated with him. Sometimes it is believed that only hopelessly sick people should be chanted, that after the Soborovanie, a person will certainly die, or will certainly be healed ... What does the Church really mean by this sacrament? Tells archpriest Valentin ASMUS.

Unction: Forgiveness of Forgotten Sins

Sacrament of Sanctification  more often called Unction (since it is usually performed by several priests, that is, in a collegiate manner). What is its essence? Firstly, the prayers of this sacrament can heal the sick, if God's will is at that. Secondly, and just as importantly, in the sacrament of the Unification, a person receives the remission of sins.

But what sins? Not those who need to be confessed in the sacrament of Penance, which we recognize and try to overcome. But each of us has many sins that pass by our consciousness, because of our spiritual relaxation, rudeness of feelings. Either we, having sinned, immediately forget it, or we do not consider it a sin at all, we do not notice. However, unconscious sins are still sins, they burden the soul, and you need to be cleansed of them - which happens in the sacrament Consecration. In addition, if we talk about seriously ill people, it happens that, because of their general painful condition, they simply cannot notice the sins in themselves, in which they would otherwise have repented of confession. So, if we bring sincere repentance, then in the sacrament Unction  we receive the forgiveness of such unmentioned (beyond our will) confession of sins.

As for bodily recovery, it can happen, we pray about it during the sacrament, and such miraculous healings do often happen after the Unification. However, one cannot count on this, one cannot perceive the sacrament as a kind of magical procedure that guarantees healing from all diseases.

From the depths of centuries

Sacrament of Sanctification, like other sacraments, has a gospel origin, it was established by Christ Himself. As we learn from the Gospel of Mark (chapter 6), “having called the twelve, Christ began to send them in two, giving them authority over unclean spirits. They went and preached repentance, cast out many demons, and oiled many of the sick and healed. ” According to this testimony, even before the Savior’s calvary sufferings, such a sacrament existed; it served the sick both physically and spiritually. Then we find information about Sacrament of the blessing  in the epistle of the holy apostle James (5th chapter, verses 14-15). “Is any of you sick, let him call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. ”

Liturgical office of the sacrament Unction known in its present form only from the XV century. The rite (that is, the order of the sacrament) has evolved over the centuries, becoming more extensive, more fixed.

What were the stages here? I must say right away that not everything is known to us. We know very little about the first centuries. In the earliest monuments that are related to this rite (III-IV centuries), there are such ranks as “thanksgiving of water and oil” and prayer for the brought oil. The prayer for the tree included a request for blessing from God for this tree for anointing the sick and for their consumption in food. In the 4th century, the blessing of oil was sometimes performed by the bishop - however, at that time other sacraments were performed mainly by bishops.

Then, in the Byzantine liturgical books of the VIII century, we see a more detailed sequence of prayers, the first of which is the one that begins with the words: “Holy Father, to the doctor of souls and bodies ...” This ancient prayer is pronounced in our time when the Soborov is celebrated, and moreover, it is, in theological language, a secretly perfect formula.

Sometimes they ask - and when Unction  began to be perceived precisely as a sacrament when it was included in the number of seven church sacraments? By the way, the idea that there are exactly seven sacraments is not dogmatized in Orthodoxy, this is a Western theological tradition, which has also been included in our textbooks. But some holy fathers also considered sacraments to be sacraments, for example, the Great Consecration of Water on the Feast of the Epiphany, monastic tonsure ... Anyway, Consecration  early enough it was perceived as a sacrament in the East and in the West.

However, in Catholicism the understanding of this sacrament until recently differed from the Orthodox. In medieval western tradition Consecration  it was customary to perform only on dying people, hence the Catholic name, “extrema unctio” - “last anointing”. It must be said that such a name of the sacrament, together with an appropriate understanding, penetrated into the Church in the 17th-18th centuries and was confirmed in official church documents. It was only in the 19th century that the Hierarch of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov) insisted that this name of the sacrament, as inappropriate to Orthodox understanding, be withdrawn from use - which happened in the Russian Church. But even in the West, a medieval understanding of this sacrament has not been preserved. In recent decades, after the Second Vatican Council, Catholics changed their attitude towards Unction, and now they call it somehow differently - for example, "the sacrament of the sick."

Unction: two options, one essence

Sacrament Unction  has two options for its implementation. Sometimes it is performed at home over one sick person, and sometimes in the church, over everyone who wants to begin this sacrament and who, for health reasons, can come to the temple. In this case, it is usually confined to some special events of the church year. In the Russian Orthodox Church, this is most often the period of Great Lent, less often - Christmas.

How often should one be chained? Usually to the sacrament Unction  run once a year, but, of course, the person himself must come to the realization that he needs healing. Not only in bodily healing (a physically healthy person can be unified), but first of all in spiritual healing, it needs to be cleansed of its unconscious sins. I note that after a person has been unified in the temple, it is highly desirable for him to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ in the very near future.

How does this sacrament happen? According to the rank, it should be performed by seven priests, although in reality there may be fewer priests - it is not always possible to collect as many even in the capital's churches. But even with a smaller number of priests (even with one), the sacrament will still be valid.

Modern rank Unction  - lengthy and complex. First, preparatory prayers are read, the canon, and then the rite itself is performed. Excerpts from the apostolic epistles included in the New Testament are read, from the Gospel, then litany is pronounced (prayer to God, delivered by the deacon on behalf of the worshipers) with the remembrance of the names of those who receive the sacrament. Then the prayer for the consecration of the oil is read and the anointing itself is performed. When anointed, the priest reads the already mentioned prayer, "Holy Father, to the doctor of souls and body ...". Then the second priest begins to participate in the sacrament, and again a similar cycle follows. This is repeated seven times. At the end of the rite, the gospel is laid on the heads of those who have begun the sacrament with the reading of a special closing prayer. After the service, believers can take home the oil remaining after the sacrament and use it for anointing. The same oil is also used in the burial of a Christian - it is poured into a coffin before being closed with a lid. So this sacrament reminds us of eternal life and prepares us for it.

Unction: how not to

Sometimes people have rather strange ideas about Unification. For example, that resorting to it should only be seriously ill people on the verge of death. This is a relic of the non-Orthodox perception of the sacrament as a “last anointing” - which is completely inconsistent with the Holy Scriptures. After all, the apostles performed the anointing with oil precisely for the sake of healing.

But one cannot also expect an immediate recovery after Unification. Alas, sometimes in the minds of people this sacrament turns into something self-sufficient, external, almost magical. When I see crowds of people who come to the church for the Unction, I think: Are they all confessing, taking communion? Some of them perceive the Unification as a medical procedure, there is no thought about its spiritual aspect ... The consequences here can be very sad - not having received the expected bodily recovery, a person is offended: how was it that I defended a long service, did everything that was supposed to, and the result not! As a result, people can grow cold to faith, to the Church.

Healing is a free gift of the all-blessed loving God, and not the inevitable result of some external actions. This should be remembered by all those embarking on the sacrament of Unification. We must think about our life, about our sins, strive to be cleansed from them. The Sacrament of Unction is partly akin to the sacrament of Penance.

I think we must separately say about the unification of people who are dying. Sometimes such people are afraid of this sacrament, believing that it will lead to a quick end. But the terms of human life depend only on the will of a loving God, and the Lord often extends the life of a dying man with the very aim that he can adequately prepare for the transition to Eternity - to confess, partake and be united. Often a priest called to a dying man immediately performs these three sacraments, one after another. Unction for a dying person is absolutely necessary, because he often just can’t physically confess - but the sacrament of Holiness will free him from the burden of those sins in which he would have wanted, but had no time, could not repent of the sacrament of Penance.

And in the end - practical advice to readers of Thomas. Nowadays, it often happens that a person comes to the Unction with a delay when the service is already underway. And the man is embarrassed. Can he still take part in the sacrament? Yes maybe. Even if he managed to receive at least one anointing, the sacrament will be valid. However, there are situations when a person is late due to circumstances beyond his control, and there are times when he was late due to his own fault. In any case, if there is such an opportunity, I would still recommend to be baptized another time - in the same church or in any other church.

We are inside a period called Lent. Inside the post there are peculiarities, customs, traditions. And in particular, there is one such rule: during the fast they resort to the sacrament of unification. About what it is, when you need to do this and whether everyone needs it, or you need to be unified only before death - there is such a common point of view, we are talking today. Answers questions   Archpriest Igor Fomin, Rector of the Church of the Holy Right Prince Alexander Nevsky at MGIMO.

- Father Igor, I think that we need to start with the simplest question. When is the unction performed? In what cases does a person need it?

- A person gathers when he is sick, when he feels sick. But, of course, this is not about a runny nose. Every Christian gathers once a year, for example, by Lent. Because unction  - This is just the prayer in which we ask the Lord to forgive us our forgotten sins.

- And how to prepare for unction?

- Classically, it looks as follows. First, a man confesses - (calls) those sins that he remembers and has not yet confessed. Then gathers. And then (at the nearest Liturgy) he takes communion of the Holy Sacraments of Christ.

- That is, if I understand correctly, when we talk about unification, we mean that most of us have unification according to "medical" spiritual evidence?

“Well, here it’s probably not medical, but spiritual evidence.” Those that motivate us to desire to be healthy, not only bodily, but also spiritually.

- In what cases is unification held in the temple? in what cases are assembled at home?

- Unction is not always held in the temple. This sacrament does not require any specific external circumstances, as, say, the sacrament of the wedding, which is always performed in the church, and only with rare exceptions, can be performed with the blessing of the ruling bishop at home. Unction is a sacrament that is performed at home, and there is no difference.

- Tell me, do you need to charm children? Babies up to 7 years old?

- The sacrament of gathering is performed for the reason that we ask God for the forgiveness of our forgotten sins. Therefore, babies - children under 7 years old - do not gather, since the Lord forgives them their sins, if any, for them. If the child has already reached the age of 8, then here, with the blessing of the confessor of the family, he can be chained. But usually collect after 16-18 years.

- A household question, if you will. After the unction, the oil that was used in this sacrament remains. And then what to do with this oil? And why is it needed at all?

- This oil can be anointed (for example, anointed sore spots), you can add it to food when we cook soup or some other dish. You can bless yourself with this oil by drawing a cross on your forehead. The most important thing is that it should be used with reverence and prayer.

“Can it be stored in completely normal conditions?” No special requirements?

- The requirements are the same as for the storage of any shrine. It should be reverently, in a worthy place. And so that this shrine is not forgotten, as it sometimes happens ...

- Father Igor, can I finally ask a question about the name? The word unction itself - what does it mean? It looks like the word cathedral. Is it a church building? About meeting people? Why was the sacrament so named?

— Unction  so called because several priests are gathering for it. The inscription says that seven priests must gather and perform this sacrament over the sick. Seven priests - this is not always feasible, it happens that one priest does everything. But the name, however, is from here - from the congregation.

Dear readers, on this page of our site you can ask any question related to the life of Zakamsky deanery and Orthodoxy. The priests of the Ascension Cathedral of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny answer your questions. We draw your attention to the fact that issues of a personal spiritual nature are better, of course, to be solved in live communication with the priest or with your confessor.

As soon as the answer is prepared, your question and answer will be published on the site. Processing questions can take up to seven days. Please remember the date of submission of your letter for the convenience of a subsequent search. If your question is urgent, mark it with the word “URGENT”, we will try to answer it as soon as possible.

Date: 03/02/2014 12:42:37

Nadezhda, Naberezhnye Chelny

How to prepare for the Unction?

protodeacon Dmitry Polovnikov answers

Hello! Please tell us more about the Sacrament of Unction — how to prepare for it correctly, is it possible to confess and partake on the eve of, for example, Saturday, and to be communed on Sunday, or take communion after the unification? How to apply the butter with wine and cereals, which will give after the sacrament. Save me, God!

First of all, we note that according to the definition of St. Filaret of Moscow, "Eternal sanctification is a sacrament in which, when the body is anointed with oil, the grace of God is invoked on the sick, healing the weaknesses of soul and body." The Apostle James, brother of the Lord, writes about healing through the Eternal Sanctification: “Do any of you be sick, let them call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him ”(James 5: 14-15). This testimony lies at the heart of the church sacrament of the Blessing of Sanctification. The sick person in the sacrament is healed not by oil as such, but by the prayer of faith, and the Lord Himself restores the sick person. The anointing serves only as an external sign indicating the inner content of the sacrament - the prayer of faith and the remission of sins. Absolution is an integral aspect of the sacrament of the blessing of blessing. Sickness and sin are interconnected — the apostle James himself writes about this connection at the beginning of his epistle: “Sin that is made gives birth to death” (James 1:15). Just as the death and decay of human nature is a consequence of the fall, so personal sins of a person can be a cause of aggravation of the disease. This correlates the blessing with the sacrament of Penance - the first makes up for the second, especially for seriously ill patients, but does not cancel it. According to church tradition, it is preferable to perform the consecration with the confession. Before the Unction, the believer is advised to repent of the Sacrament of Confession and partake of the holy Mysteries of Christ.

Many people ask, is it permissible to resort to the Sacrament of Unction for those who are not seriously ill? Church tradition testifies in favor of such a practice, albeit with reservations. Due to the beneficial effect of the sacrament not only on the body, but also on the soul of a person, the Church Fathers found it possible to perform it not only on suffering bodily ailments. Therefore, the Eternal Sanctification of all comers is usually performed during Lent, when the Church especially urged sinners to reconcile with it.

According to church tradition, one can receive the Blessing of Sanctification only once during a single illness. More than once in the same disease, Blessing can be taught only as an exception - if it has become particularly protracted.

Since the essential part of the sacrament of the Blessing of Sanctification is the remission of sins, when deciding on the participation of children in this sacrament, one should be guided by the same rules that apply to the sacrament of Penance. In particular, the sacrament of the Blessing of Saints should not be taught to children under the age of seven without special need.

With a large gathering of people, Confession before the Blessing of Sanctification can be performed in advance a few days before the Sacrament. The cereal used in the Sacrament does not carry any particular degree of sanctification and is added to ordinary cereals during cooking. The oil remaining after the Sacrament was specially sanctified, so it must be used to anoint oneself during an illness. Taking home more oil is not recommended.

So you figured out all the questions regarding the essence and necessity of the Unification; understood that all idle speculation about this sacrament does not make sense and it does not represent mortal danger for you, but somewhere quite the opposite - it will help recovery: if not bodily, then spiritual certainly.

Because a bodily ailment, if you approach this action correctly, will be perceived from a completely different angle. And you decided: Great Lent - it's time to be unified! And now we need to find out the purely practical issues of preparing for the Sacrament of the Blessing of Sanctification.

Do I need to fast, partake, and confess before unction?

There are almost no completely healthy people. BUT disease, as we know, is the result of our sinful lives.  And before you get ready to make the Unction, you first need to worry not so much about whether you can eat before him, how much to seriously think about what you have sinned in life and to be cleansed of sins.

BUT purification takes place through the Sacrament of Penance  in the course of which the committed sinful acts are recalled and called, in which it is necessary to repent with affliction of heart. Therefore, first of all, it is recommended to attend a confession.

It will not be a big violation if the confession is completed after the Unction. The main thing is that it takes place.

It is known that the Blessing of God is able to forgive a person some sins, but not those that he, hoping for exactly this, simply withheld, say, out of shame. Only sins that are completely forgotten or committed unconsciously are forgiven.

The same applies to the Sacrament of Communion: if possible, it is good to partake of the Holy Communion. But most often this happens after him, at the nearest Divine Liturgy.

A few words about spiritual preparation

Most diseases are recognized in Christianity as a consequence of sin. The more consciously and seriously, with attention and zeal, a person reacts to an upcoming event, the more correctly he tunes in, the better he will achieve.

What needs to be done to make the sacrament to the maximum benefit?

In addition to repentance of sins, aggravating the soul, it is also necessary to reconcile with people  - and with those whom you offended, and with those who offended you.

Even if a person is seriously ill, it is necessary to find for him the possibility of reconciliation - in the words of the prayer read before Communion: "... first be reconciled to those saddened," which are very appropriate in the case of Unification.

In the Gospel of Matthew these words of Jesus Christ are quoted: "If you forgive people their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, and if you do not forgive people their transgressions, your Father will not forgive you your transgressions."

Therefore, if we expect from the blessing of the remission of our sins, then we should also forgive our neighbor in his errors.

Before such an important event, the soul asks for prayers. How to prepare in this sense? There is no special prayer rule before the Unction.  But this does not prevent prayer-prepare at your discretion. There are such general recommendations:

• on the eve of the sacrament or on the day of its fulfillment, you can read the Penitential Canon;
• it is quite appropriate to choose and honor the akathists to Jesus the Sweetest, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, or saints who received the gift of healing the sick (for example, the great martyr and healer Panteleimon, Luke of Crimea or anyone else to whom the “soul lies” especially);
• sincere prayers can create the necessary penitential mood.

Is it possible to eat before the sacrament?

Specially fasting before the Sacrament is not necessary. People who often partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ know that this sacrament is performed purely on an empty stomach.

Does this concern the Unification? It all depends on the person himself, his health. Sometimes the Blessing of Holiness can be scheduled for the afternoon or evening: if you can tolerate and not eat, no one forbids. Like no one forbids refreshment.

And a “food” post on the eve of the Unification is also not provided for: there is no need to specially fast. It’s enough that the sacrament for those who wish is performed in temples during the period of many days of fasting - Great or Christmas.  And since fasting, which concerns any Christian, then food must be eaten appropriate, excluding meat, dairy, egg products.

The peculiarity of Unification in Great Lent is that it takes place in temples at the same time for a large number of laity who wish to receive the healing of soul and body as God's mercy.

To sick people who are at home or in a hospital cure, the priest arrives as necessary on any agreed day of the year.

What to take with you?

  Do not forget to bring oil. You need to come to Soborovanie on time, and even better - a little earlier.

If you did not pre-register on the candle box, you should add your name to the list according to which the priest will pray seven times for each of those present. You need to buy a candle - you will hold it in your hand during the sacrament.

What do you need to bring for self-confession? Usually they bring vegetable oil - in a bottle or a jar, to whom it is more convenient. Opening the dish, put it on the table, and at the end of the sacrament, the priest adds to each container with oil the consecrated oil left after the anointing.

Handkerchiefs or absorbent wipes will not be superfluous.  During the anointing of the face, chest and hands, excess oil is formed, which from time to time should be rubbed into the skin or patted with a cloth so that clothes do not get dirty.

It is known that, going to an Orthodox church, women cover their heads.

1. The head scarf or scarf should be tied so that the forehead is open  (they will anoint it) and so that the hair is not pulled out and from under the scarf.
2. Clothing should be so comfortable that it makes it possible to anoint the neck and chest.
3. It is not recommended to leave jewelry or jewelry on the neck, fingers, hands: so as not to interfere, and not to be oiled.

It is human nature to expect a miracle. And it is right. However, the Creator should not demand it. We are not given to know what is “encrypted” by Him in our bodily infirmities: maybe they are much more useful for the correction of our souls than 100% health. After all, the reason for our troubles is something inside us. And, getting ready for the Unction, we must clearly understand that for our healing it is much more important to humblely ask the Lord for healing and preservation of the immortal soul, and then the body.

Archimandrite Spiridon (Khodanich) tells about the rules of Unification.

During Lent, the Sacrament of Unction is performed in all Orthodox churches. However, many believers have a misconception about this Sacrament. Father, please tell about him. What is the meaning of this sacrament?

The Sacrament of Soborovanie, or Blessed Sanctification, like all the other Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, is of gospel origin and was established by the Lord Himself. We read in the 6th chapter of the evangelist Mark: “Having called the twelve, Christ began to send them in two, giving them authority over unclean spirits. They went and preached repentance, cast out many demons, and oiled many sick people and healed them. ”

At the apostle James, we find a more specific indication of the meaning of the Sacrament of Unction: “Do any of you be sick, let them call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him ”(James 5: 14-15). From the words of the apostle one can see that we are talking about a sick person who wants to receive healing from the Lord from spiritual and bodily ailments — mercy from the Lord (Greek elaioa - oil; eleos - mercy). At the same time, it is important to understand that the “prayer of faith” should not only be with the shepherds performing the Sacrament, but also with the sufferer who falls to the Lord. In other words: what cup of his repentance, heartfelt contrition for sins, pure prayer and faith a man will bring to God, this Father will fill with his life-giving grace.

“... Your faith has saved you ...” (Mark 5:34).

“... According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29).

“... A doubter is like a wave of the sea lifted and fluttering by the wind: May such a person not think to receive anything from the Lord” (James 1: 6, 7).

- Is it true that only seriously ill and dying people are gathered?

How can we determine the criterion for the severity of the disease? There is no clear indication as to the extent to which the Sacrament performs the disease. Collect and seriously ill, and dying, and suffering from mental illness: grief, despondency or despair, as their cause is most often unconscious and at the same time unrepentant sins of man. It is not allowed to perform the Sacrament of Unction over children under 7 years of age and over people unconscious.

Very often one can also meet the erroneous opinion that is popular among people that, they say, the Sacrament of the Blessed Sacrament is performed before a person leaves the earthly life. Thus, people deprive themselves of this grace of God ... Most likely, this is the influence of either the medieval Western tradition that existed before the Second Vatican Council, where the Unification was really performed only on a dying person and in this connection was called the Catholic Church “last anointing”, or, as evidenced by the history, the naming of the Sacrament of the Unction “last anointing” penetrated and existed in our Church in the 17th and 18th centuries and even became established in official church documents. Only in the 19th century, thanks to the work of St. Philaret (Drozdov), the name was canceled as inappropriate to Orthodox understanding. I think that now there is no person who would position himself to be completely healthy, both mentally and bodily.

Unction of the old Count Bezukhov. Reproduction to the book of L. Tolstoy "War and Peace." Artist A.V. Nikolaev

- How often can one be chained?

The answer to this question we find in the Trebnik of St. Peter the Grave, where he says that during one illness we gather once. If a person in the same disease resorts to the Sacrament many times, then he shows a lack of faith or even distrust of God. It must be understood that illnesses are also sent to a person for his salvation, and the Lord, as a True Doctor of souls and a body, knows better who is benefited. All those who embark on faith receive spiritual benefit.

- How to prepare for unction? Do you need to confess and receive communion before this?

There are no special instructions or instructions regarding preparation for the Sacrament of Unction, but, according to the established pious tradition of the Orthodox Church, we precede the Sacrament of Unction with confession and conclude with the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. If it is not possible or did not have time to confess before the unction, then you can confess and take communion afterwards.

“Do the candles that we hold in the church during the Sacrament of Unction need to be stored somehow special?”

Regarding the candles, oil and grains of wheat used in the Sacrament, there are also no statutory requirements, but there is a tradition.

Candles can be left in the temple or taken home and burned at home prayer. Sometimes you have to hear such things about candles that you simply wonder how a believer says and believes in such a thing. Talk that the candle has absorbed the disease and will harm it should be immediately rejected as superstition.

The oil that we are given in the temple after the Sacrament can be used, like wheat grains, in cooking. Also, during the period of various illnesses, a person with oil can prayer himself to anoint himself at home, applying it crosswise.

There is an opinion that during unction, sins are forgiven, which they forgot to say in confession. Is it so?

Regarding the forgiveness of precisely the forgotten sins in the Sacrament of Unction, we are told by the great old man Optina Rev. Ambrose: “The power of the Sacrament of the Blessed Saints lies in the fact that they are especially forgiven of sins forgotten by human weakness, and after the forgiveness of sins bodily health is given, and the will of God will be to this ”(Collection of letters in 3 parts. Sergiev Posad, 1908. Part 1. P. 80).

If we delve into the meaning of the prayers in the Order of Saint Elijah, we will see that they are all permeated with the thought of the connection of bodily healing with the forgiveness of sins. In the Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ, healing the afflicted, does not say: “I will heal you,” but always points to the root of the disease: “Your sins are forgiven you.”

By “forgotten”, that is, forgotten, sins are meant those to which a person did not attach importance to life and does not remember them because of his weakness, but these are by no means deliberately concealed sins that confuse us and are not consciously confessed.

Interviewed by Natalia Goroshkova

Press Service of the Zaporizhzhya Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church