Archpriest Andrei Tkachev. Spiritual life. The first stage: churching. (№ 407934)

In prayer, fruit is first given, and then work is required. According to human reasoning, the sequence of the process is broken here. After all, in ordinary life first - work, and then - the fruit. And then first the fruit was eaten, then you need fruitless, dry work in the hope of obtaining a future fruit. It's a divine thing.
In the psalm, which is singed at the wedding, there are such words: "Bear down your fruits: blessed is he, and good will be to you." You will not eat the fruits of labor, but the labors of fruits. In other words, the fruit is given in advance, and then there will be labors, and you will be satisfied with the "labors of fruits." And this is not a mistake, and not a play on words, as many translators thought. Indeed, the fruits are given before labor. When people marry, they first eat sweets, and only then - bitter. What is this? Maybe all my life worked out those quickly eaten sweet fruits? No. This is different - so the spouses prepare for the gifts of the future. At the beginning of marriage, intimacy and joy are given, and then labor begins - to give birth, work, educate, endure, get sick, grieve. In the end, the spouses expect genuine fruits, much larger than the first.