On January 22, 2024, at the meal at the end of the Divine Liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, in particular, noted that he could not help but feel great sorrow in connection with the events in Ukraine, "where there is open persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church," Patriarchy.ru reports.
"But here is a surprise," the Primate emphasized, "Ukraine has headed for the so-called family of European nations, where human rights are supposedly the basis of all legislation. But it turns out that in this world everything is possible! You can violate human rights, you can lie, you can be hypocritical, you can kill, if it works for certain forces that seek to control the entire world, the entire planet!"
"And many people have trembled in the current situation, including some of our historical allies, fraternal Orthodox nations," His Holiness stated. - And who did not tremble? Russia did not tremble! The very country that suffered the most from fascism and endured so much misfortune. But we stood firm! Why? Because we are strong, smart and well-organized? No, but our strength, first of all, is in our Orthodox faith.
"Unfortunately, a significant part of our people is not yet churched, but the values of Orthodoxy are absorbed with the milk of the mother. When a mother says to her child: don't, it's bad, she is teaching him moral values, the source of which is the word of God and our Orthodox tradition. Because the spiritual and moral code of our people has been preserved despite all the trials of the revolutionary years and attempts to build a new world on the ruins of Russia," His Holiness said.
"The moral code, based on Orthodox spirituality, Orthodox morality, determines both our legislation and our social relations. By the grace of God, not a single law has been passed in our parliament in recent years, against which the Russian Church could oppose because of its inconsistency with Christian values," the Patriarch continued.
According to His Holiness, "today it is Russia that keeps the world from moral disintegration." "Even as a secular state, Russia strives to live in accordance with spiritual and moral values. And our church life is being revitalized in a way that is impossible to imagine in Western countries," the Primate noted. - There churches are being closed, remodeled at best into mosques, at worst into cabarets and restaurants. But in our country, hundreds, thousands of temples are being built!"
"But the most important thing, my dear brothers and sisters, is that we keep the Orthodox faith. And what does that mean? It's First of all, it means that we can testify to our faith, addressing modern people, that our words are really understandable to people, that we match our preaching with their hopes, their sorrows - this is the actualization of the Christian message," the Patriarch said.
"It is inconceivable that John Chrysostom spoke to his listeners in a language that would have separated him by a millennium! He spoke in a very cultured, high language, but understandable to both the aristocracy and the common people. So our task is to make sure that we, without primitivizing our preaching, without imitating slang, as I sometimes observe with great sorrow in some Church preachers, speak simply, clearly, intelligently, intelligently, beautifully, if you like, but convincingly," His Holiness stressed.
"We have indeed entered a very responsible period of our history as a state and as a Church. Therefore, I ask everyone, brothers, not to relax, to work actively to build parish communities, paying special attention to children, to youth, to lonely parishioners, so that our parishes become islands of healing for human souls," concluded His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
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