Why this exists
Meet Jonathan.
Jonathan is one of thousands who have found Orthodoxy on YouTube. He is watching, he is earnest, and he wants the Christian life. There is no church in his area, or he has not yet walked into one.
The danger is not his enthusiasm. It is that he finds an app, a book, or a voice online, and settles into a piety that never leaves the screen.
Chotki is aimed at that man. It gives him only a thin, provisional start — and it is built to make that start feel unfinished until a priest has him under his care. The shape of this design is what we are asking you to evaluate.
Jonathan, the inquirer on his own
He starts small, and is pointed toward a priest
Jonathan is given only what is common to the whole Church — morning and evening prayers, the Wednesday and Friday fast, the Jesus Prayer, the day's appointed readings. It is deliberately thin, because almost everything beyond that line varies between jurisdictions and parishes, and is exactly what a priest decides.
He may keep disciplines of his own — sleep, study, exercise, sobriety — but the editor does not offer a liturgical or ascetic category. The restriction is the absence of the option, not a warning he can dismiss.
And when Jonathan reaches for something that belongs on the other side of that line, the application does not lecture him. It stores his question in memory and prompts him to direct it toward a priest.
- He canKeep a universal rule, follow the calendar, read the day's Gospel, count a prayer rope
- He cannotCompose a rule of prayer or a fast for himself
- It urgesFind a priest. The page of questions is built to be carried to one
Three questions waiting
Things you have wondered about, written down so you can ask someone. Most priests would rather be asked.
Four things. That is enough to begin with, and beginning small is the counsel every priest gives.
of 33
Click, or press space.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
Jonathan enters the Church.
He pairs his Chotki app with his priest's
Jonathan keeps his discipline; the priest follows along — encrypted end to end.
Every rule says where it came from
Each line carries a mark: given with a blessing for what his priest gave him, parish for what the parish keeps together, my own for the rest. At a glance he can see which parts of his rule are the Church's and which are his own idea.
That single mark is what makes an honest confession possible later: Father, the two you gave me I kept; the third I set myself, and it was too much.
A rule his priest gives him is never installed silently. It arrives named and dated, and he receives it — because in the tradition a rule is given and received, and the receiving is an act.
- He canReceive a rule, ask one question about it, propose something for his priest's blessing
- He can alsoWrite his own rule — fitness, sobriety, dedicated time for his children. His priest sees these self-authored rules and can discuss them with him as he sees fit
- He can askFor economia — travelling, ill, a guest at another man's table — with his reason in his own words
- He cannotQuietly switch off a rule he was given. That is what economia is for
From Fr. Seraphim new
The Akathist to the Theotokos, on Saturdays. “Begin with this through the autumn and we will see how you find it. If it is too much on top of the evening prayers, say so and we will change it — that is not a failure, it is how this is meant to work.”
For the priest, carrying his people
He sets his parish's rule, and it is entirely his
The application arrives already populated with publicly sourced prayers, readings and fasting rules for whichever church he names — a starting point, so that he is not facing a blank screen. From there it is completely his: every prayer may be rewritten in his parish's own wording, removed, or replaced with a reference — pages twelve to eighteen of your prayer book — where the parish already uses physical books.
He assigns a rule to one man with a click, or publishes what the whole parish keeps. What arrives on their phones is his practice, not somebody else's.
And he can see what was actually kept — without asking Jonathan to remember, under pressure, at a moment when he is already ashamed.
- He canRewrite every text, assign a rule, answer a proposal, grant economia to one man or the whole parish
- He seesThe same page Jonathan sees. Not a report about him — the same words, rendered by the same code
- He is never toldThat anyone is slipping. Only a mutual record of the promises kept between them
The last month, in his own view
Morning prayers were kept on every day but two. Evening prayers were kept on most days; the ones that were missed were all Fridays. The rope has been picked up steadily since June.
The Akathist you gave on Saturdays has been kept twice since it was received a fortnight ago.
Fridays
Every missed evening prayer this month fell on a Friday. Chotki names a pattern only when every slip shares one, and draws no conclusion from it.
“28 of 30”, not “93%”. The counts are what a person can say aloud; the percentage is what turns it into a score.