Patriarch Kirill gave a sermon on Solovki about the end of the world

The theme of the “end of the world” is one of the favorites and disturbing thoughts of some Orthodox believers. The scandal with the former schema-abbot of the Central Ural Monastery, and now schema-monk Sergius, is also connected with her: microchipping, which he and many others are so ignorantly and indignantly afraid of, for them is in fact also a sign of the approaching end of the world. The sign, of course, is largely invented, but does not lose its importance because of this.

The theme of the patriarch's sermon was dictated by the reading at the Liturgy of the words of the Apostle Paul: “And then the sun and the moon will be darkened, and the stars of heaven will fall from heaven, and then the Son of Man will appear, coming on a cloud in his glory.” These mysterious and even terrible words are about the end of the world, associated with an incredible cosmic cataclysm.

“It is enough to look at the starry sky on a dark night in clear weather to understand all the greatness of Divine creation - the entire gigantic scale of the cosmos,” said the patriarch, emphasizing that he, as a shepherd, from his earliest youthful ministry, answered questions both in narrow and wide circles. questions about the end of the world. Because even people far from faith were shocked by the text of the Apostle Paul with its cosmic drama: but what if this really happens? The topic of the end of the world really affects people.

But with all the interest of a reasonable person in the topic of the universal end, what is much closer to us is not the cosmic end of the Universe, but our own. And worrying about how this will happen to the human race, we forget about our end of the world.

When everything ends for us here on earth, what will happen to us? We are waiting for a meeting with God or with a dark and terrible force, which is also really present in human history and in our lives. And when we leave this world with the baggage of sin and lawlessness - without any cosmic tragedy - then what seems to us today to be of utmost importance and priority will disappear from our consciousness. And we, looking from there at our earthly life, will say: My God, what did we do, what did we waste our time on, why did we fight so much, enter into conflicts with people, why did we destroy our families, deceive our relatives and friends, not to mention about strangers and distant ones.

Gospel reading teaches us the most important thing and helps us understand that our life here determines our eternal existence. And therefore, concern for the salvation of the soul should be the most important priority. And everything else, to which we often devote our whole lives, giving away our nerves, our minds, quarreling with people, is peripheral to the most important thing - the state of our soul, the strength and purity of our feelings.

50, 60, 70, 80 and even 100 years of human life are a moment, a moment in human history, not to mention the cosmic dimension. And one very important act is required of us - we must try to actualize everything that we learn through the Gospel.

“You don’t have to leave the temple and forget about everything.” “When leaving Solovki Island and boarding a ship or plane, we shouldn’t forget about all the experiences we’ve had here,” the patriarch said.

“We must preserve this spiritual experience, not in the form of nostalgia for a beautiful place, but by remembering that state of mind and the thoughts that visited us at this holy place and during the service. And the more in life we turn to the high, sublime, holy, coming from God, the easier it will be for us to live. And we will gain great wisdom, the ability to distinguish wheat from chaff, the essential and the tertiary, and we will help ourselves to maintain calm and strength of spirit, to stop judging people, to be angry at people and circumstances, to deceive relatives, friends and strangers, and to try to live simply, purely and clearly .

The Patriarch's sermon was preceded by the abbot of the Solovetsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, Bishop Porfiry of Odintsovo. Bishop, born in Sarov, into a family of scientists, graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute. A man whose godfather was the famous philosopher Genrikh Batishchev.

Text of the book “The Mystery of Repentance. Lenten sermons. 2001–2011"

Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill The Mystery of Repentance. Lenten Sermons (2001–2011)

© Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

From the author

Every Orthodox person who actively participates in the life of the Church knows from his personal experience the special significance that the days of Great Lent have for all of us. This church institution is intended so that a person living in the modern complex world of everyday affairs, worries and responsibilities can at least temporarily pause his life’s run, look at what is happening to him, what is the inner state of his soul, whether he is going to Heaven or marking time, and perhaps slipping into the abyss of one or another vice, not having the strength to break out of the captivity of sinful habits. The saving time of Lent is given to us for this reason, so that we try to change our lives for the better, using such spiritual means as fasting, prayer, repentance and good deeds. These days, each of us is called by the Church to remember again and again about God, about the coming Kingdom of Heaven, to ask ourselves what needs to be done in order to have hope of entering this Kingdom.

Great Lent is a school of Christian life, a school of deep inner work on oneself, these are lessons in self-restraint, this is a sacrifice that everyone can make to God as a kind of tithe of the year. Holy Pentecost immerses us in a special atmosphere of spiritual life, calls for the maximum possible concentration of attention on eternal values, on the work of the spirit for everyone, allows us to test ourselves in the fight against untruth, to feel not only in the depths of our souls, but also in real life actions the taste of victory over sin.

The idea for this book has been in my mind for a long time. Beginning in 1975, I preached during the morning and evening services of the first week of Great Lent, integrating sermons into thematic cycles whenever possible. Most of them were not recorded on tape and are now lost. From what has survived, sermons that were delivered in the new, 21st century were selected for this collection. Together with sermons on other days of Lent, they represent a kind of guide to the topics of the Holy Pentecost and Holy Week, which is offered to the attention and judgment of the pious reader.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'

KIRILL

From the publisher

The Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House is beginning to publish the works of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', who, by the will of the Holy Spirit, was elected on January 27, 2009 by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church as the sixteenth First Hierarch of All Russia.

Today, the importance of the Church in the countries of the Russian world has grown immeasurably. Social and political forces listen to the position of its Primate and hierarchs. The Russian Church is increasingly exploring the modern information space. Now our hierarchs are frequent guests on television and regular authors of publications in the media.

What has been said is especially true in relation to the current High Hierarch, who, long before he occupied the All-Russian Patriarchal See, gained fame both among the domestic flock and far beyond the borders of Russia as an outstanding spiritual writer. In addition to hundreds of articles, speeches, and interviews scattered across the pages of periodicals, he became the author and host of the permanent television program “The Word of the Shepherd,” with which for many years the Sabbath began for both Orthodox and non-Orthodox television viewers. In 2006, the materials from these programs were used as the basis for a book of the same name, which became extremely famous and was republished three times in our country (and now its translations into foreign languages are being prepared).

Therefore, it is not surprising that the first thing the Publishing House faced when preparing the book by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill was the abundance of material and the ensuing difficult problem of its selection. It was decided to begin the publication of the works of His Holiness with sermons, taking into account the wide fame of the High Hierarch as a preacher. Teaching is perhaps the most important aspect of patriarchal activity. While performing divine services, the Primate of the Church always takes the opportunity to teach the flock from the All-Russian pulpit lessons of edification, consolation, and hope, being in his sermons a spiritual mentor, a wise shepherd, whose teachings millions of believers crave.

But the total volume of preaching material stored in the archives of His Holiness turned out to be very large. For this reason, the High Hierarch selected for this publication only Words spoken during Lent.

The ascetic practice of fasting, dating back to ancient times, is extremely important for the spiritual development of a Christian. This especially applies to Great Lent - the longest of all multi-day fasts, which is especially dedicated to repentance and, ending with Holy Week, directly leads believers to the holiday of Holy Easter.

The first week of Great Lent is especially important, when the feat of prayer and asceticism is the strictest, when the Church calls on the Orthodox to attend church services as often as possible. Most of the book contains sermons relating to the first week of the Holy Pentecost. The other two parts of the collection are sermons on other Lenten days and sermons on Holy Week.

In each of the three sections, the material is arranged in chronological order, forming certain cycles, which are then repeated from year to year in accordance with the liturgical readings and sacred memories of Lenten days. But these repetitions are not literal: The words of His Holiness the Patriarch in a variety of ways and comprehensively develop the themes of abstinence, repentance, prayer, and mercy set during Great Lent - just as composers develop certain melodic themes in a variety of ways when creating their musical works. This principle of presenting material is most strictly followed in the first and last parts of the collection. The well-known preaching talent of the High Hierarch allows His Holiness the author to find more and more new facets in material limited by seemingly rigid boundaries, which makes it possible to read the book with unflagging interest.

Congratulating everyone on the publication of this important and spiritually significant book by the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House wishes its readers a soulful and soul-nourishing reading.

First week of Lent

2001

Homily at the end of the morning service on Monday of the first week of Great Lent in the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Smolensk
on February 26, 2001.

About idleness

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

To elevate a person above passions, for his spiritual growth and improvement, special knowledge is necessary, for our salvation is a great and mysterious action. But if we are deprived of a guiding spiritual principle on this path, then our inner forces may be wasted in vain, without noticeable benefit for the transformation of the soul and life. A person can literally become exhausted, straining in an effort to change and correct himself, but at the same time never achieve the desired result, because in the spiritual struggle with sin, as in any difficult matter, one must be armed with the necessary knowledge and have the appropriate experience. The Holy Fathers of the Church and renowned ascetics of piety give us the opportunity to join in their knowledge, based on the centuries-old experience of the Church.

Some of these ascetics left behind remarkable spiritual and literary creations, in which they set out their own understanding, based on church experience, of what a person should do when conquering himself. Such works primarily include the famous “Ladder” by St. John Climacus. But not only the Greek, Byzantine, Syrian, Egyptian, Palestinian fathers of the Church, driven by the desire to help people cope with their spiritual illnesses, wrote on the topic of the fight against sin, jointly creating an integral system of man’s godly existence, a detailed plan for organizing his life in Christ. Our domestic ascetics also took part in these ecumenical works, such as Saints Tikhon of Zadonsk, Theophan the Recluse, Ignatius Brianchaninov and others, who left behind remarkable works. Reading their books, which are a common Christian heritage, we perceive the spiritual experience of ascetics of bygone times. At the same time, their wisdom continues to remain topical in every subsequent era, for it is not the wisdom of this or that church writer, but the wisdom of the Church, preserved in its Tradition.

Many of the creations of the Fathers of the Church represent a coherent system of spiritual and practical philosophy, helping a person to ascend from simple to complex, from easy to difficult, gradually increasing spiritual loads, so that there is no breakdown and fall, as happens with an athlete who decides to lift without proper preparation. a weight he is not yet ready for. A similar thing happens in the sphere of spiritual life: our ascent to God through overcoming the sin living in us is a whole strategy of struggle, which involves following specific and very wise rules.

The Holy Fathers paid so much attention to the system of human upbringing that even their prayers reflect the key elements of this system. For example, every day and many times a day during Lent we read the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, a famous ascetic and hermit of the 4th century, who did a lot to help people actually overcome their sin and lead their souls to God. People of non-church culture also know our main Lenten prayer - thanks to its poetic arrangement by A. S. Pushkin:

The desert fathers and blameless wives, in order to fly with their hearts into the regions absent, in order to strengthen it in the midst of long-lasting storms and battles, composed many divine prayers; But not one of them touches me, Like the one that the priest repeats During the sad days of Lent; Most often it comes to my lips and strengthens the fallen with an unknown force: Lord of my days! the spirit of sad idleness, Lust of command, this hidden serpent, And do not give idle talk to my soul. But let me see my sins, O God, so that my brother will not accept condemnation from me, and revive the spirit of humility, patience, love and chastity in my heart.

These lines, breathing the poetry of truly Christian feeling, even during the times of the worst atheistic persecution of Orthodoxy in our country, continued to unite people with the prayerful sighing of St. Ephraim the Syrian. However, today a believer should know that in his wonderful prayer, Saint Ephrem, in addition to a clearly discernible feeling of repentance and contrition of heart, also captured some of the provisions of his own ascetic system.

It is no coincidence that in the patristic writings prayer is called “the mirror of spiritual prosperity.” Thus, the four initial petitions of the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian contain a request to God to deliver us from specific vices: “Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, covetousness and idle talk...” And the four subsequent petitions contain a request to help us acquire the four most important virtues: “Give me the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love, Thy servant...”. Finally, the third and final prayer concerns the topic of repentance and attitude towards one’s neighbor: “Hey, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins and not to condemn my brother, for blessed art thou unto the ages of ages. Amen".

So, the Monk Ephraim the Syrian begins with an unexpected mention for many of the spirit of idleness. And questions immediately arise: why is idleness a vice? And if it is, after all, a vice, then why does Saint Ephraim put it in the first place, as if drawing special attention to it from the praying person?

The fact is that idleness is a special state of the human soul and body, which is a breeding ground for many other sins, passions and vices. As people say, “the devil haunts the idle.” In a formal sense, idleness is an empty and devoid of meaningful pastime, not filled with any business, work, care or creativity. However, idleness should not be confused with rest, which is a necessary part of human life, for even in the Old Testament era, rest from work was defined and sanctified by God Himself through the commandment to keep the Sabbath day as a time of rest and prayer. Rest is physiologically necessary for a person to restore his bodily, spiritual, and emotional strength. Idleness is something fundamentally different, for it represents the dominion over man of the idea of emptiness, a lifeless vacuum.

I am talking first of all about the emptiness of thought and the emptiness of spirit. In the old days, an idle field was an uncultivated field, an idle house was a house without inhabitants, and an idle womb was one that did not bear fruit. A person with an empty head and an empty heart is not able to do anything in his own life that would properly equip, improve and organize it. For such a person, his entire life is often wasted. There is even a saying about this: “Idle youth means dissolute old age.” In addition, it should be remembered that you can remain in relaxed idleness, even while formally assigned to some kind of business, sometimes even very responsible. How many troubles and misfortunes such “idleness” brings to others, to the whole society! It seems like the person is in place, and seems to be working, but there is no result and there won’t be any. This idle pastime under the guise of work is always either useless, harmful, or dangerous.

Often all this happens because a person has such a dangerous vice as laziness. Laziness is a painful state of will in which a person is unable to focus and discipline his thoughts, be the master of his desires, and control the course of his life. Flabbiness of spirit and relaxation of will become an insurmountable obstacle for him when trying to realize his plans, intentions and dreams, and solve pressing life problems. He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who imitates the idle will be satisfied with poverty.

(Proverbs 28:19), the Word of God warns us.

But spiritual emptiness and laziness cannot be considered as the constant and unchanging content of the human spirit. Indeed, in nature, even an absolute physical vacuum is filled with cosmic matter and energies. The same thing happens in the case of the spiritual emptiness of an idle person, which sooner or later will be filled by those forces that surround us and have external seductiveness, persistence and internal energy. And this is how sins appear to an empty soul.

Therefore, most often a person who is spiritually weak, lazy and prone to idle pastime becomes an easy prey for dark and evil forces, sinful vices and passions. For in them there is a destructive attraction, and the internal energy of sin, and the devil’s power. This is what will easily fill the vacuum that forms in the soul of an idle person. Truly, idleness taught many people evil

(Sir. 33, 28). An idle person may at first be complacent, but gradually he becomes unkind and sometimes even evil, for he begins to live according to the sinful law of passion and instinct. “Just as land that is not sown and planted produces weedy and unusable grass, so the soul, which is not exercised in good deeds, but by its nature constantly strives for activity, is of necessity given over to evil deeds,” says St. John Chrysostom.

So, idleness is not at all a spiritually neutral environment, indifferent to the work of our salvation. This is why St. Ephraim the Syrian, in the very first words of his Lenten prayer, calls for a fight against idleness. The saint teaches us to ask the Lord so that by the power of His Divine grace we will be able to overcome the sin of idleness and laziness, which can destroy and destroy human life. Every sin brings suffering to a person. But, probably, few of them are capable of disfiguring our lives as much as laziness and idleness. How many talents were ingloriously ruined by this enveloping and suffocating weakness! How many failed destinies, unfulfilled great plans, destroyed beautiful hopes are on her account! And all only because a person turns out to be unable to overcome and curb his sinful nature, overcome his spiritual weakness, dominate his will and force himself to work even when any effort for good seems unbearably difficult, tiresome or even dangerous to our health. A person habitually resorts to many crafty excuses, excuses and subterfuges in order not to leave the relaxing state of idleness and laziness. We know how to negotiate well with our own conscience and present it with formally convincing explanations for our comfortable stay in sin.

That is why Saint Ephraim the Syrian calls us during the days of Great Lent to pay special attention to the sin of idleness and laziness, through which, as through an open door, the malice of this age, the dark passions of the world, and the devil’s temptations and enticements invade the innermost holy of holies of our soul. .

Saint Theophan the Recluse notes in a letter to his spiritual child: “There is free time, of course. Where should I put it? You need to read useful books and expand your range of common sense concepts. This is necessary in life." That’s right: use leisure time to expand the range of common sense concepts that are essential and necessary for our lives.

Following the wisdom of the holy Venerable Ephraim the Syrian, let us ask the Lord to protect us from the vice of idleness and laziness, giving us in return spiritual sobriety of thought and willpower, so that we can spend our lives in such a way that the talents given to us from God flourish, bringing prosperity, peace and happiness to us ourselves and those around us. May this great testimony of our father Ephraim, filled with deep and beautiful wisdom, help us in our daily struggle with sin!

Amen.
Homily at the end of Great Compline on Monday of the first week of Great Lent in the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Smolensk
on February 26, 2001.

About despondency

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

In his Lenten prayer, which we read during the services of the Holy Pentecost, the Monk Ephraim the Syrian put in a condensed form a whole system of ascetic work, which involves the fight against vices and the acquisition of virtues.

In the first words of the prayer we hear the following petitions: “Lord and Master of my life! The spirit of idleness, despondency... do not give it to me.” We have already talked about why Saint Ephraim begins the enumeration of the vices from which we must free ourselves first of all, with a mention of idleness. For it, coupled with spiritual laziness, destroys the integrity of the human personality, destroys the time of our life, slowly kills the talents given by the Lord in us, not allowing the personality to be realized and fulfilled in accordance with God’s plan.

But no less dangerous is such a vice as despondency, which St. Ephraim also speaks about at the very beginning of his prayer. What are the properties of this spiritual state? St. John Climacus defines it this way: “Despondency is relaxation of the soul, exhaustion of the mind... hatred of a vow” (Homily 13:2), “despondency sometimes comes from pleasure, and sometimes because there is no fear of God in a person” (Homily 26:44 ). St. Neil of Sinai adds: “Sadness is despondency of the soul and is the result of angry thoughts; for anger desires vengeance, and failure to take vengeance gives rise to sorrow.” Blessed Diadochos calls despondency “a lukewarm and corrupting passion.” We all know that despondency reveals itself in a person’s depressed mood, in a decrease in his vitality, a depressed state of mind, sometimes in combination with grumbling and grumpiness.

Here it must be said that medical science knows many mental illnesses that may have similar symptoms - after all, the state of depression described in psychiatry also manifests itself in depression, a noticeable drop in vitality. This disease is characterized by inhibition of a person’s intellectual and motor activity, lethargy, apathy, weakening of motivations, a gloomy assessment by the patient of himself and his position in the surrounding reality, sometimes a negative perception of his own personality to the point of self-deprecation, a pessimistic view of the outside world, his present and future. Depressive conditions are widespread and very diverse: modern psychiatry knows more than seventy varieties of such diseases - from “alcoholic depression” to “egoistic depression.” And since depressive syndrome is a serious illness, they fight it with the help of appropriate medications and therapeutic procedures.

However, the sin of despondency has nothing to do with mental illness. A person who is completely healthy physically and mentally can also easily fall into a sinful state of despondency. For despondency, unlike depressive syndrome, is caused by lack of faith and lack of patience.

A person who has fallen into despondency is constantly in a state of severe depression, but he is also characterized by irritability. And if you do not fight despondency, then it can develop into such a dangerous state of the human spirit as despair. After all, despair is a direct consequence of the enslavement of human nature by the sin of despondency. Despair is a truly terrible, darkened state, when a person loses all control over himself and is capable, under the influence of the most difficult mental experiences, of committing the most terrible and irreparable acts. For example, despair is most often the cause of suicide. Truly, sorrow for the sake of God produces unchanging repentance leading to salvation, but worldly sorrow produces death.

(2 Cor. 7:10).

So, despondency takes possession of a person in the absence or lack of faith and patience against the backdrop of difficult life circumstances. A person loses heart and gives up; it seems to him that the sorrows and hardships of his existence are endless and undeserved, that everything that happens to him is unfair and wrong, that there is and will not be a way out of his situation. In a difficult everyday situation, a person becomes despondent, not seeing the opportunity to independently cope with his adversities and forgetting that God leads each of us along the paths of life prepared for him. And if on this path we happen to go through a series of trials and sorrows, even if sometimes we are visited by a feeling of hopelessness, then a believer must still firmly remember that the difficult circumstances of life are a cross that the Lord places on our shoulders, so that through a worthy , with a humble heart, accepting it, we grew in spirit, transformed ourselves and rose above ourselves, becoming like the Savior Himself in carrying His terrible Calvary Cross. The Lord tells us directly: whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.

(Matt. 10:38).

For the very feat of the Savior, His suffering on the cross, painful death on Golgotha and the subsequent Resurrection are the most convincing basis for a Christian to trust and hope in the Providence of God, which leads us through various trials of life. After all, if there had been no Golgotha in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ, if the incarnate Son of God had visited this world for a carefree, happy and joyful stay in it, then, perhaps, the trials that befell us could seem excessive to us and shake our faith. But we know that the Savior chose the path of suffering for human sins, the path of the saving Cross. On this path, God, who deigned to drink the cup of human suffering to the very bottom, was faced with overcoming hostile and irresistible circumstances, struggle until the last breath, reproach and reproach, death throes and, finally, death itself... And only then came the Resurrection.

And therefore, when life’s circumstances push us to the edge of a black abyss of despondency and despair, when we cannot find a reasonable explanation for the failures that befell us and the adversity that befalls us, we have no right to lose our presence of mind. On the contrary, we must only become even stronger in our faith. We must tell ourselves: God, who knows better than us about what our soul needs, offers us precisely this path of life, and not any other, and, therefore, this is the path that we must follow with patience and hope . A believer has the means to overcome despondency and overcome despair, for he knows: We are oppressed from everywhere, but not oppressed; we are in desperate circumstances, but we do not despair; we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are cast down, but we do not perish. We always carry in our body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

(2 Cor. 4:8-10).

Just don't envy anyone. There is no need to evaluate the lives and successes of other people with jealous hostility. There is no need to compare yourself with anyone, no need to complain that someone outwardly looks luckier or happier than us. Such bad thoughts arise from our despondency, from a lack of faith that the Lord is always with us.

Let us be supported and consoled by the words of St. Theodore the Studite, who said: “It always happens that today there is cowardice, and tomorrow there is courage; now a sad disposition, and suddenly inspiration; this minute there is an uprising of passions, and the next - God’s help will stop them. You will appear not as you were yesterday, beloved. But the grace of God will come to you and the Lord will fight for you. Then you say: “Where have you been before, Lord?” - and He will say to you: “I watched how you fought, and I knew.” Let us be patient, let us be a little magnanimous, let us constrain ourselves and crush our body, enslaving it and throwing passions far away from us.”

Even in the depths of suffering, we should always remember that God, not without a thought for our good, leads us along this path of life and not any other, and that only by following this path and fulfilling God’s will are we called to save our soul. And even if we do not have enough strength to resist the sometimes overly difficult circumstances of life, we must nevertheless endure all trials with patience, remembering that God never gives a cross beyond our strength, that the cross does not crush or destroy a person, but is given for his exaltation and salvation.

And therefore there should not be despondency in the heart of a believer. But, bearing the cross given to us by God with humility and meekness, we must maintain and strengthen our faith, especially when its strength is tested by difficult external circumstances. Saint Theophan the Recluse teaches us: “You felt the attacks of melancholy. This is an enemy attack... It attacks when the ways of God in the arrangement of our life circumstances are eclipsed. Where this darkness brings melancholy, where there is fear, where there is despair. Prayer disperses this darkness, and the light of God’s providence for us allows us to see everything clearly then... Hence the peace of the spirit and the joy of the heart, even in the most bleak situation.”

We all know how difficult it is to bear your cross and resist despondency. Saint Ephraim the Syrian also knew this, who in his prayer, which we say during the days of Great Lent, put in second place the fight against despondency as a vice, from which we can only be freed by the power of God.

“Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idleness and despondency...”

Amen.

Feast of the Holy Resurrection of Christ

We celebrate God's Easter. The Resurrection of the Savior is an event that is filled with many enduring meanings. Through the Resurrection of Christ, every person is called to resurrection. Resurrection is part of our destiny. It cannot be avoided.

Christ returns to life in a body that feeds on food and that can be touched with hands. And the Lord affirms that each of us will also be resurrected in the body.

He will be resurrected, even if his life was ruined in his mother’s womb or cut short in his early years.

People are often overwhelmed by despair, so much so that they cry out to heaven: “Lord, don’t you see what’s happening!” But there is no strength to restore the truth, and evil triumphs... Whenever a historical untruth is committed, the generation living at that time does not see any possibility of salvation. People see that evil reigns and die without waiting for justice to be restored. But in order to understand the meaning of the event, you need to look at it from a certain distance.

This year we remember the most difficult events that befell our Fatherland, which led to the destruction of the life of our country, to the reign of evil and injustice. A sea of blood was shed, and the witnesses of those terrible events passed away without seeing the hand of God, without waiting for justice. But to us, looking at these events from a distance of a hundred years, much has already been revealed. We see that everyone who committed injustice was punished in this life by waves of terror and wars. They were punished in such a way that the names that should have gone down in history as the names of liberators went down in history as the most controversial. And we can say that over the past hundred years, God’s judgment has been carried out on those who brought so much suffering to our country. Nevertheless, there is still a lot left unsaid and misinterpreted. Therefore, it is difficult to know whether justice was served in the end.

If a person does not believe in God, in the resurrection, then everything that turned out to be unrealized does not allow one to understand the meaning of life, turning it into a kind of understatement, marked by injustice. But if we believe that a person’s existence does not end with physical death, then everything falls into place. Each person's history and life gain meaning.

Before us is eternity, which Christ revealed to us. Before us is a new life in the body, which means the mind, will, and feelings will be there too. And if we are talking about eternity, it means that they will develop limitlessly, and there will be no limit to perfection.

This is why the Resurrection has enormous meaning, extending beyond the boundaries of existence. And such an understanding of the Resurrection not only gives spiritual inspiration and emotional support, but also fills our lives with genuine meaning. Therefore, bowing before the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection, we ask our Savior to give us the opportunity to be with Him in that Divine Kingdom that will have no end. Christ is Risen!

April 16, 2021

On Monday of Holy Week

On the second day of Passover we remember the election of Matthias as one of the twelve. He was chosen to take the place of the fallen Judah, in accordance with the customs of that time, by lot. In a sense, God's lot falls on each of us. We, of course, are not always aware of this; it seems to us that our life is made up of some random circumstances. Out of thoughtlessness, we use a phrase that cannot be filled with any rational content: “we are lucky.”

This uncertainty indicates that there is something in our lives that happens against our will.

This is God's lot. It is very important to learn to see what invades our lives against our will and predetermines our future life. You need to ask yourself the question: is this not the will of God? And it is very important to be able to accept God’s lot without grumbling, especially without bitterness, as sometimes happens, especially when it comes to ill health or other trials.

We must accept God's lot with great trust, prayer and hope, in no way being defiled by our indignation, our thoughtlessness, our resistance, because the Lord never wishes us harm and over time we ourselves are convinced that it is precisely the event that We perceived it very critically and could not explain it, but it served to our undoubted benefit. Christ is Risen!

April 17, 2021

On Tuesday of Holy Week

On the third day of Holy Easter, we remember the event that occurred after the Resurrection of the Savior on the outskirts of Jerusalem, when two disciples, Luke and Cleopas, going to Emmaus, met Christ, but did not recognize Him. And this is no coincidence: if at some point people’s spiritual eyes were opened, they saw that it was the Savior; and if they did not open, then they could not recognize Him.

At what point did Luke and Cleopas recognize Him? At the same time when, having entered the dwelling where they were supposed to rest, the Lord performs the Sacrament of the Eucharist - breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples. And in this breaking of bread their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him.

Often people who seek God focus on knowing Him with their minds. They read books - theological and philosophical; read the Gospel, and it helps them. People hear a sermon in church, and there are times when the preacher's words warm their hearts. But is this enough to know God? To experience a personal meeting with the Lord, to see His presence in your life, in the life of your people, in the life of the human race?

No, no words are capable of connecting a person with God, and it is through this connection that God is known. This happens only when, with sincere, pure faith, having brought repentance, we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ the Savior.

Then it is not words, not smart books that act in us. We may forget everything at this moment, but with our minds and hearts we feel the presence of God in our lives. The celebration of the Eucharist is at the center of all our lives. The Church becomes the Church when it celebrates the Eucharist. You can see and understand what the Church is when the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is performed. It is very important that the mind participates in man's mysterious path to God. But this path will never end with a meeting with the Risen Savior without communion with His glorified Body and Blood. Christ is Risen!

From the sermons of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' on April 18, 2021

Photo: Easter service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior 04/16/17, patriarhia.ru

Your brick in the construction of the House of Mercy . Currently, work has begun on the construction of the Church of St. Basil the Great - the groundbreaking took place on February 9, 2021, names are being accepted for eternal remembrance. The area is being prepared for the construction of a temple with the construction of a temporary road. Support this necessary cause! Invest your brick right now!

If you cannot donate today, take a breath and pray for a common cause. Donate when you can. God bless you!

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Related materials:

Week of the Samaritan
from the sermons of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'.
From the sermons of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill in April-May 2018
On the Week of the Paralytic, at the Butovo training ground, on the Day of Remembrance of St. George the Victorious.