How to deal with sanctified objects that have fallen into disrepair

Among the questions asked to the priest, some of the most frequently repeated are those related to the handling of objects that have sacred meaning: from the icon and the pectoral cross to the packaging of an Easter cake with the image of the cathedral on it. If you, our dear reader, are a person who has been churched and experienced in spiritual things for a long time, this article will hardly add anything to your knowledge. But if you are just starting your way to the Temple, and you still do not quite understand much in everyday Christian work, it is for you. To dismiss the question of how to handle religious objects - they say, piety will tell - is in no way possible. Piety comes with the experience of spiritual life, but objects with the image of sacred symbols appear in our life every new year and, over time, go out of use more and more. What can you do: mass production! How many broken crosses, printed icons with a faded image - blessings from the ancient consecration of the temple, cracked icon lamps, dilapidated newspaper clippings and portraits of venerated elders from some magazines - sometimes cannot be counted. All this can be patiently stored for quite a long time, but sooner or later the day will come when a critical mass of these things will have to be disposed of.

How to do it right? The best option is to take it to the temple. Each parish has a so-called unsupported place where obsolete church items are first burnt in a special oven, and then, already in the form of ash, are buried in the ground. Often an unsupported place is a well or a pit in the courtyard, where the remains of consecrated water are poured and the ashes from burnt church objects are poured. But in your church, not everything will be accepted for disposal. Therefore, it is easier and faster to solve this issue yourself. Of course, without violating Christian piety. However, piety is a special state that is difficult to describe in words; to try to formalize it for all occasions will be pointless and even harmful. Nevertheless, in the question of interest to us, some rules, the most general ones, can still be deduced. So, paper icons, clippings, willow branches, and bunches of grass, old literature, remnants of prosphora and everything else that can burn is best set on fire. It is not so important where exactly to do this (although in no case should you forget about fire safety rules), as in what mood and with what thoughts. Neither the image of the saint, captured on the old icon, nor the prayer to him, printed on the reverse side, from our the actions will not suffer or diminish in any way - we burn only the material carrier, so that the shrine itself is not trampled in some random way. That is, we do exactly what a Christian can and should not only do. This is what the Apostle says about the high dignity of every Christian, addressing the lay faithful: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy people, people taken as an inheritance in order to proclaim the perfections of Him who called you” (1 Pet. 2: 9).




It is best to bury the ash left over after burning, scatter in the wind or pour it into clean running water, calling, figuratively speaking, one of the natural elements to help in a good cause - or all four at once. You can bury the ashes at home, for example, in flower pots - both the flowers are good, and the problem with the rest of the disposal is solved. The shell of Easter eggs, which remains in abundance after the celebration of the bright Resurrection of Christ, a dense package in which cakes are baked, as well as other organic materials, which are completely impossible to burn at home, must at least be burned and also buried. But what about plastic? Bottles for holy water and blessed oil, plastic bags and clear plastic boxes are very large, so keeping them at home can quickly become a real problem. First, all these unnecessary things must be freed from paper tags and labels, which have sacred symbols and words. Then rinse them thoroughly with running water and then take them to the trash can with peace of mind. Best of all - in the one that is specially designed for plastic: now there are such in many cities. After serving the shrine, such plastic will be recycled and once again serve people. The same applies to glass vials and bottles: they need to be freed from labels, rinsed and, if possible, returned - or, in extreme cases, just thrown away. And the removed tags and labels - burn. Unfortunately, the awe of the past is not observed among the living generations. On bottles of wine, packages of lean mayonnaise, sprinkles for cakes and other products offered to us in the store, you can find images of temples, icons and even the symbol of the cross. If we have purchased such goods, they must be freed from the sacred symbols and images, after which the packaging can be disposed of in the usual manner as household waste. And the cut, again, burn.




Good quality lamp oil burns out completely, and in principle there should not be any problems with its disposal. But a cracked icon lamp or fragments from a broken ceramic candlestick that stood in the red corner would be best taken to the temple. If for some reason this is a problem - you need, as already mentioned, to wash them with running water and bury them far from places where people or animals walk. But pectoral crosses or large icons in any case will have to be taken to the temple.

Nikolay Smirnov. Still life Note that a pious attitude towards icons, consecrated branches, spiritual literature is necessary not only and not so much during their disposal, as during the period when we use them. The representatives of the older generations have heard a lot about the accurate attitude to books from their parents and grandparents - this applies even more to icons and other consecrated things. Careful handling of religious items will allow them to serve much longer, significantly delaying the moment when they finally require disposal. Collecting icons, crucifixes, spiritual books can be a kind of passion. There is nothing pious in such gathering, but rather the opposite. Instead of feeling each icon, each book as something unique and unique in his life, as a source of reflections on the heavenly things and a window to a blessed world, a person is simply fond of hoarding, which, by and large, is no different from collecting fashionable gadgets or beautiful dishes - and has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual work in the Christian understanding. If you happen to be in houses, from floor to ceiling, filled with icons and expensive books, hung with crucifixes and lamps, blessings from the holy land and other things, you may recall an unusual feeling. Instead of the outpouring of grace, which, it would seem, simply must occur with such a concentration of sacred objects, you suddenly feel constraint, inconvenience, embarrassment. Against your will, thoughts come to mind about how not to hurt, break, upset the owner with an ignorant question about the origin and purpose of this or that thing ... A Christian's house is still not a museum; the dwelling should leave the guests with a feeling of coziness, comfort, and peace. Yes, and our earthly life is not eternal: there will be no owner - how the successors will dispose of all the objects remaining after him, a big question.

And one more topic similar to the previous one. It also refers to a kind of collecting - however, in this case, the subject of collection is the church prosphora. This one is from Pochaev, this one is from Kiev, and this one is from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Some people, out of misunderstood piety, collect entire expositions from prosphora, which, of course, cannot be done: at best, they will all turn into stone-like rusks, at worst, they will be covered with mold. The prosphora is intended to be eaten after the church service. If it lasts longer than one day, then it is solely for the purpose of consuming it in the morning on an empty stomach, along with holy water. However, in this case, the prosphora should be stored in a special vessel that prevents it from becoming moldy and airy. And here's what else, perhaps, it is necessary to say. In almost every parish there are people who are better informed than anyone else about the disposal of church items. In an ironic, of course, sense: they not only thoroughly know what to do with what, but they will also ask you with passion how you did it before meeting them, and not without pleasure they will denounce you of ignorance and sinful actions.

This kind of conversation is best avoided. And not myself get carried away overly by the external side of these actions: our piety, we repeat, is much more manifested in heartfelt, concentrated prayer at the icon than during its disposal. And finally - about things that seem to be not church, sold in shops, stalls and post offices - and, nevertheless, related to faith. These are postcards, envelopes and calendars - loose-leaf, tear-off and others, of which a great many are offered today. Purchased in a secular shop or institution, they cannot be considered consecrated objects - after all, hardly anyone consecrated them. Nevertheless, they depict gospel stories, the faces of the Savior, the Mother of God and saints, texts of prayers, names and lists of church holidays. Therefore, such things, when they have served their purpose, are best burned in the same way as the items purchased in the shop at the temple. Some people, having accumulated a considerable amount of this kind of printing products, then hand them over to waste paper. It seems logical: this is not from the temple. If you are not embarrassed by the thought that in a recycled form such printing will go to the production of anything, including toilet paper, you can do so. But it's better to burn it all the same. And finally, an important clarification, which may seem superfluous to someone, but to someone it will clarify something that is not yet fully understood. Recyclable items are not burned like fuel - in a stove or in a barbecue grill - but are simply taken out of use in this way. If a person received at least some spiritual or mental benefit from interacting with them, it means that their production, acquisition and stay in the dwelling were not in vain. V. Sergienko