Neste artigo vou juntar as palavras e declarações de líderes religiosos relevantes sobre a actual guerra na Ucrânia. Agradeço que submetam quaisquer declarações em falta nos comentários, com links, por favor. Quaisquer destaques nos textos são da minha responsabilidade, com o objectivo de sublinhar pontos chave. Todos os comentários de líderes internacionais serão postados em inglês. Para compreender melhor as dimensões religiosas deste conflito, leiam este artigo. Ao longo destes dois meses esta lista tornou-se muito extensa e infelizmente o Blogger não tem ferramentas que tornem a pesquisa mais fácil. Todas as declarações estão por ordem de data, a começar pelas mais recentes.
Daily video message
A year of pain and suffering passes, a year of
war crimes that the world must recognize and condemn... On the 365th day of the
war, we thank the Lord God that we can continue the fight against the evil of
war. We thank Him
and the Armed Forces of Ukraine for surviving and can say today: Ukraine is alive!
Ukraine stands! Ukraine is fighting! Ukraine is praying!
On the anniversary of great tragedies, we will
try to reflect and summarize the great tragedy that happened. However, today
we can say that about 700 medical care centers, including hospitals and
dispensaries, were attacked by Russian criminals. About 500 churches, prayer
houses, mosques, and synagogues were destroyed. A great blow was dealt to the
achievement of civilization — culture, education, science, spiritual life,
which Ukraine was proud of. Thousands of people were killed, tens of thousands
of people were injured...
23/02/2023 (Source)
Online meeting with Vaticanists
To sum up this year, two opposite feelings are
present in my heart. On the one hand, there is a feeling of joy and
gratitude to God, who helped us survive and serve our people, gratitude to the
international community and the Universal Church for their solidarity with us
in this difficult year. On the other hand, there is powerlessness in trying to
stop this terrible war. The whole world feels powerless before this absurd and
sacrilegious war. Every day the war takes the lives of many people and,
unfortunately, our helplessness in rescuing the tortured and killed is a great
wound on the body of our people.
20/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
How much Ukraine has seen during the last
year! How much our Kyiv archdiocese and its priests, who are standing
around the throne today, have seen! We saw Russian tanks, we saw death, we
saw pain and suffering, blood and tears of our people. But we saw Christ
himself in the tearful face of Ukraine, we saw that He is with the least, with
those from whom the right to life is taken away. We saw Christ being
crucified again in the body of Ukraine. I thank you for the fact that you so vividly
felt where Christ is in those wartime circumstances, and turned our communities
into centers of social service, serving Christ to the least. We saw in our
parishes the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, who had to leave their burnt
houses. You did everything you could to help these people, and turned our
parishes into places of encounter with the living Christ.
Today Bishop Andrii joins this group of
ministers with a special mission to show the modern Ukrainian where God is
when we are being killed. This is a question we are all looking for an
answer to. This is a question that children ask their parents. We
thank the Lord for another bishop who will direct all the forces of our Church,
especially our archdiocese, to this difficult service during the war.
19/02/2023 (Source)
Words during a meeting with youth
The slogan that leads us to victory is "I
believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine!". But in order to keep this
victory that we will win, we must say to ourselves: "I believe in the
Ukrainian family!".
Because if young girls and boys today do not have the courage to start families
in Ukraine and give birth to children here, then for whom are we fighting, in
the name of what are we gaining our independence
16/02/2023 (Source)
Words during the inauguration of a kindergarten
The consecration of this kindergarten is one of
the events of the social service of our Church for the good of the
long-suffering but God-loving Ukrainian people. Children of war is unfair,
because those children who know what war is, are already children with special
needs. How painful it is sometimes to watch when children from the East or
South of Ukraine, and even Kyiv region, together with their mother, seek refuge
in a safe part of the country and the world when they enter a new environment.
The first thing they ask is: "Where is the nearest bomb shelter?".
Children of war grow up too quickly.
War steals childhood. And the children of war need
special attention, social service, pastoral care of disciples of Christ.
Because children during the war are one of the most vulnerable categories of
our society.
16/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
How special today are the words about the
loving Heavenly Father, about the arms open to us in His Son, about the power
of God's love, given to us by the Holy Spirit during this cruel war. We
know that the war did not start when the guns started firing and Russian
missiles and bombs started falling on us, but when the Russian aggressor began
to dehumanize Ukraine, saying that there is no such people, but only the
territory, there are no such people, but there is our resources. The
war began with a crisis of values. Those who believe that they decide
the fate of nations, love things and use people, make faceless even their own
people to achieve their low, lustful, criminal goal. We see it today.
The whole world is surprised by what is
happening in Donbas. Political scientists say that the Russians set absurd
political goals, which they try to achieve with the help of military
force. In fact, the existence of each of us is being denied. Many
people in the world wonder why Ukrainians believe that the victory of Ukraine
will be the liberation of our entire land. They are surprised because they
do not understand that what is important for us are not the resources that have
already been destroyed, but the people who live there, the sons and daughters
of Ukraine, who beg God for salvation day and night. Can a father's heart
be at peace when his child is in a foreign land in slavery?
Therefore, on this Sunday, let us pray that
each of us may rest in the arms of the Heavenly Father. When we hear the
word "God", let's imagine a Father with open arms, watching over his
child, over the most precious thing that he has. Having sinned, let us
feel that He is waiting for us and loves us, even if we have wasted everything
that He has given us. Let the words of the father be the slogan of
Ukraine's victory today: "My son died and came to life, he was lost and
was found" (Lk. 15, 32).
12/02/2023 (Source)
True Christian patriotism is love for the land
that raised you, that gave you a path in life. The vocation to belong to one's
people cannot be disrespected.
Today, the Ukrainian people have their own
mission – a Christian task and vocation among other peoples of the world. Ukraine
has become the epicentre of world events, the future of humanity is forged in
it. And we, as faithful sons and daughters of our people, must defend their
right to exist with weapons in hand, but the main motivation of Ukrainian
indomitability today is love for our native people.
We thank the Lord God for giving us the
vocation to be the sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people, who are crying
and suffering today, who are martyred people and who gave so many heroes of the
Christian faith throughout the thousand-year history of life in God, Christian
life in our lands.
Today we ask all the holy martyrs of the
Ukrainian people to help us be patriots, good sons and daughters of that
nation, which we are called to accept as a gift and vocation from God, belonging to which is the key to
the success of each of us. And the legacy of our national culture today is
capital, a treasure from which a new, great, bright future of our people and
our Motherland will grow.
12/02/2023 (Source)
Online meeting with ACN
Almost 80% of people in Ukraine need
rehabilitation to a greater or lesser extent in order to overcome trauma -
psychological, physical or of another kind.
(…)
We cannot survive without your help. But we
have hope. If we managed to survive for a year, then, I think, Ukraine will
win. Because not only strength is growing, but also hope among the Ukrainian
people. Thank you
for being with us in such a difficult situation. Thank you for praying for us.
Thank you for spreading the truth in your countries. Thank you for being our
friends.
08/02/2023 (Source)
Online meeting with French journalists
It was announced that Ukrainians as an ethnic
group of people with their own language, culture, and history do not exist,
that being Ukrainian means being an adept of some ideology, and not a people.
Those who call themselves Ukrainians, on the conviction of Russia, are the same
Russians, but a little heretical. Therefore, the Russian aggressor wanted
either to reeducate those who call themselves Ukrainians, or to destroy them.
And the Russian army systematically applies this type of genocidal policy in
its presence in Ukraine. Wherever the Russians occupied Ukrainian territories,
they created torture chambers.
(…)
This war did not start with the first bombings
or shots, but with lies, lies, which Russia turned into weapons and bullets, with which it
bombarded Ukraine, Europe and the whole world long before February 24 of last
year.
We hope that the Lord God will enable us to
persevere. Ukrainians have no other chance to survive, except to persevere
in this unequal battle. Thank you, who are not indifferent to this great
tragedy in the East of Europe, which can be called the colonial war of the
third millennium, which is being waged in Europe, which Russia is waging
against the Ukrainian people in order to destroy it as a historical phenomenon,
to take away from it the right to exist. We believe that we will stand, we
believe that the Lord God, who gave us the right to life and existence, will
help us defend this right.
(…)
Everyone united to stand up for the defense of
their people. We had unprecedented cases of cooperation when it was
necessary to save our people. And the representatives of the UOC MP, and the
OCU, and Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims — all as one stood up to protect
Ukraine from the Russian aggressor.
07/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
During the war, we see that today Ukraine is
fighting human pride and the pride of modern Pharisees who come to us and say:
"We want to show you the way to true perfection." And we see
murderers who, under the pharisaical slogan of spreading the ideas of the
sanctity of the "Russian world", now claim that they are coming for
the "desatanization of Ukraine". What Pharisaic narcissism and false
illusion of those who do not understand that they are the carriers of the
satanic spirit, which brings ruin and death to entire nations, and first of all
to their countrymen! Because in the Holy Scriptures, the word "Satan"
means "accused." Today, these ideologues, who claim to be the only
defenders of Christian values in the world, build their own supremacy only
against the background of humiliating and destroying others and, taking away
the right to exist from Ukraine and Ukrainians, accuse us of all mortal sins
for the whole world. The unfortunate ones do not realize that they are the
source of the spread of satanization of the modern world... The modern
evangelical Pharisee unwittingly does the satanic thing - he accuses and
humiliates! What a strange contrast! Because it is the Lord who justifies,
raises and exalts his lowly ones!
05/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of a sermon
We greatly respect our Armed Forces of Ukraine
— you, guys, our defenders and soldiers who are present here
today! Because of you, who love your family and friends and the
Motherland, God immediately wants to defend his people.
Apparently, now there is not a single family
in Ukraine in which God's children do not cry out to Him day and night:
"Protect us from a powerful unjust invader and occupier who neither fears
God nor is ashamed of people." This can happen thanks to the
courage, courage and strength of our Ukrainian army. It protects and
defends the weakest, the smallest — and thus differs from the armed formations
of other nations. This is not an army of invaders or occupiers. We
do not need someone else, but we will not give up our right to life and
freedom, to our own state! And we know that this mission - to be the voice
and protection of the smallest and weakest children of Ukraine - was given to
us by God himself. Whoever believes in God, that He will defend us,
can say: we believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine given to us by God, we
believe in our victory! We believe that God's justice will always have
the last, the highest word. Christ himself tells us this today: God
protects, he will protect - and immediately.
06/02/2023 (Source)
Words to young people in Ternopil
War is a completely unnatural human condition.
Just as it is unnatural to live in hatred. This emotion burns out the
personality. We are created to love and be loved, to live and give life. And
being at war, we are, in fact, in the most absurdly unnatural state.
It is a pity that today, in order to save one
life, we are forced to take another. Not because we want to kill someone, but
because we are forced to protect our people, our Motherland in this way. Does
war cancel God's Commandment "Thou shalt not kill"? No. Each of our
soldiers feels guilty deep in his soul. This can be justified to some extent,
from a moral point of view. But then it requires prayer and spiritual healing.
Unfortunately, war is a circumstance where we
look death in the eye every day. Today, the majority of Ukrainians are forced
to look into the eyes of those who came to kill us, forced to defend the
Motherland. From a moral point of view, this is called proportionate use of
weapons. If there is no other way to stop an attacker than to strike back, then
we have no other choice. The Pope says that any war is a defeat for humanity.
From a Christian point of view, this is a very
powerful challenge and a certain wound. We must be able to experience it in a
Christian way. But, unfortunately, such dramatic circumstances are not always
subject to the rules of book theology. For many years I taught moral theology,
social ethics, the rules of war and peace in the modern world as a doctrine of
the Catholic Church. But when I witnessed the terrible consequences of the war,
it forced me to rethink everything I knew until now: not to deny and reject,
but to understand more deeply, to develop and in that context to live on.
05/02/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
These days, new data on the number of religious
buildings destroyed during the war in Ukraine — more than half a thousand —
were made public. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate)
lost the most churches, our Church — 17, the Roman Catholic Church — 12. The enemy
is really trying to destroy everything that can create some livable space,
particularly in the occupied territories.
04/02/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
Yesterday we learned that the enemy is starting
to hunt Ukrainian children in the occupied territories. This is some new
inhumane tactic that we have been seeing lately. Almost 100 children were taken from Lysychansk
to Tatarstan. We know for sure that 50 of them are high school students. We
have no information about others. A total of 14,000 Ukrainian children were
forcibly deported from the occupied territories. Life there, unfortunately, is
becoming more and more unbearable.
03/02/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
A total of 1,376 children are registered as
victims of this war. However, the real number is much higher. While visiting the Vatican
hospital "Bambino Gesú" in Rome, we learned that only this
institution accepted about two thousand Ukrainian children for treatment.
Children continue to suffer. A world in which children suffer has no future.
(…)
We pray for them [over 20,000 Ukrainians in Russian
concentration camps], we ask the Lord God for their release. Even today, our
fathers Ivan and Bohdan are in prison and are being tortured in Berdyansk. We beg the Lord and everyone who
can help us, to release these courageous priests who are imprisoned and
suffering for the sake of Christ.
29/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
We see how modern despots, dwarfs, want to make
a name for themselves by humiliating and destroying other peoples and the
achievements of human civilization, killing millions of people and sending
their own peoples to death. Listening to the testimonies of our people who
survived the occupation, we hear them saying in one voice: the Russian invaders
came to us to take away our dignity! These invaders behave like scoundrels,
because they feel that no one respects them in their own army, in their
country, no one needs them - they are considered the garbage with which Ukraine
is littered today.
29/01/2023 (Source)
Daily video address
We see how today, when a humanitarian crisis is
unfolding in Ukraine, various Churches and religious organizations cooperate
very fruitfully and actively to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, and
clothe the naked. Together we saved our faithful, clergy during the threat of
Russian occupation of various parts of Ukraine. In particular, we organized green
humanitarian corridors together: Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Jews,
Muslims. The war forced us to see how much we can already do together in the
name of saving human life in Ukraine
28/01/2023 (Source)
Interview with Vatican Radio
His Beatitude Bishop, the historic visit of the
All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations to the Apostolic
Capital has come to an end. How did the idea of such a visit come about and
what is the significance of this event in today's context?
The idea or rather the initiative of the visit
belongs exclusively to the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations. It was we who made such a decision, in fact, we have been
looking for such an opportunity for many years. This is in the context of the
entire activity of the Council of Churches, which is international relations.
We visited the Holy Land, Israel, European structures, Canada, the United
States, Germany, Poland many times. And now they have come to the Apostolic
capital. What is the meaning of this type of international contacts? The
All-Ukrainian Council of Churches is a very important voice of Ukrainian civil
society. Because who do we represent? We do not represent the state or official
state diplomacy. Every country has its own ambassador, and the Vatican has one.
We do not represent the political forces of Ukraine. We represent our faithful.
That is, we are the voice of our parishioners, whose hearts we listen to every
day, and then we become the voice of ordinary people, believing people, which
we want to convey to the powerful of this world. And in this case, we wanted
to bring this voice of the heart, pain and hope of the Ukrainian people
together to the Holy Father, because we know how important his voice is today
for Ukraine and the world. Because when the Pope speaks about Ukraine, he
speaks to Ukraine, but he also speaks to the hearts of all people of good will
throughout the world. And that's why we wanted him to really take to his heart
the voice that we wanted to convey to him.
Yesterday [January 25] this touching meeting
took place, which became the culmination of the visit: a meeting with the Holy
Father, when I had the opportunity to share my experiences with him and hear
his words of encouragement. What were the main points from the side of the
Ukrainian Churches, what did they want to convey to the bishop of Rome and what
did they learn from communication with him?
My impressions are that it was a moment of
mutual gratitude. That is, on the one hand, the Pope thanked us for being who
we are. He was surprised that such a council or a similar body of cooperation
between different Churches and religions exists in Ukraine at all. Moreover, I
saw a deep light of hope in his eyes. He was very thankful for the fact that we
really act together as brothers. He expressed this through a good metaphor
about mother Ukraine, that when the need arises, there is no more Christian, Muslim,
Jewish Ukraine, but we are all children of that mother, Ukraine, who unite in
the name of her goodness. And on the other hand, it was a voice of gratitude to
the Pope from the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and prelates, heads of
various Churches and religious communities.
It was gratitude for the fact that the Pope is
the heart of world solidarity with Ukraine, particularly in the humanitarian
sphere. We also thanked for the fact that the Holy Father is very active in
order to release our hostages, prisoners. I presented him with a folder with
the stories of 41 medics, military and civilian, asking for their release. He
promised that he would hand it over to the Russian ambassador, and in this way
he would do everything possible to save those people.
We also asked the Pope for something – to
declare February 24, when the first anniversary of this full-scale war passes,
a Day of prayer and fasting for a just peace in Ukraine. And the Holy Father took this
very seriously, he said that a number of different events are planned for this
day. There should even be a prayer in Assisi. He does not know how he will
personally experience it, but he said that it will also be a very serious
moment of prayer for peace in Ukraine and many other events, including the
showing of a film about the war in our country. He took our request very
seriously.
The participation of the Ukrainian Churches in
the prayer in St. Paul's Basilica for the unity of Christians was also a
special moment. What is the significance of such a prayer, which, in
particular, took place this year under the slogan of seeking justice and doing
good?
As I felt from the faces and impressions of the
members of our delegation, they were very moved by such a prayer, because they
saw many of their brothers from other countries: both Orthodox and Protestants
of various denominations, who were present and prayed together. That is, we
felt like we were in a very, I would say, real, warm family. And it was the day
when the Latin Church celebrates the conversion of the Apostle Paul, and we
came to his tomb. We all understand that when we pray for unity among
Christians, we must first experience our own conversion. And now, when we turn
with all our hearts to the Lord God, who is one and the same for everyone, as
father Omelyan Kovch said, then this prayer for unity will have practical
consequences, we will do good together, which was exactly what was said in the
sermon of Pope Francis.
When we talk about the good, it comes to mind
that the crown of this visit, after the meetings, let's say with high-ranking
people on earth, with high officials of the Roman Curia, with the Head of the
Church, this visit ended with a visit to those who are great in God , that is, children. What is the
role of the Holy See's solidarity with regard to Ukrainian children injured by
the war?
This became the pastoral aspect of the visit of
the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches to the Vatican. Indeed, we wanted to
visit these children of ours, the children who are being treated here. I saw
the emotions of the mothers, I saw how the doctors experienced the visit of the
interfaith delegation from Ukraine. It was an opportunity to see the
suffering of innocent children related to war and to think about it together.
And I had a thought: a world that makes children suffer has no future. We must
really persevere in that battle. We must pray for the victory of Ukraine, so
that the children do not suffer any more, so that together we can build a
slightly better world for them than we found it, a world where there will be
less suffering, especially for the innocent. And I think that this
communication was a stone of such construction of a better world.
Indeed, there are many different medical
institutions in the world, but this "Bambino Gesù" ("Baby
Jesus") is special, because it is not only a hospital with the highest
standards of pediatrics and care, but a hospital with the motherly face of the
Church, and this distinguishes it. These doctors not only treat, fulfilling
their professional duty, they also love those children. The lady head of this
hospital said: "You don't thank us, because we do it according to the
dictates of our hearts, because we not only treat them, but we also love
them."
26/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of Sermon on Sunday after Epiphany
Now, during the war, we feel like a people
sitting in the dark (even literally due to the lack of electricity and other
means of livelihood, especially in the cold season of the year), because every
day we feel the cold breath of the country and the shadows of death. That is
why we are in great need of Christ's light - Christian hope and the light of
life! Already in the early Christian monument, in the "Letter to
Diognetus", we read about the high calling of Christians who "are on
earth, but are citizens of heaven; obey the established laws, but with their
lives they surpass the laws themselves" (5; cf. Phil. 3, 20). So, as
conscientious citizens, builders and defenders of the cathedral Ukraine, let us
bring the gift of our Baptism to its construction: let us be citizens of the Kingdom
of God, let us spread it around us and love the earthly Motherland, heading for
the eternal Motherland in heaven.
Today, Christ tells us: a great light has
dawned on those who sat in the land and shadow of death. On the Day of the
Congregation of Ukraine, let us, the Christians of Ukraine of the third
millennium, be preachers of God's word, bearers of eternal values, builders of
the hope that arises from the presence of the living Christ among us.
22/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on Feast of Epiphany
We celebrate the great holiday of God's deepest
revelation about Himself, which He gives to man, the holiday of knowing our
adoption, our dignity as God's sons and daughters. We celebrate this
Christian identity of ours during war, which is the moment of the greatest
humiliation of man, the denial of his right to life and existence.
But on this day, Christ reveals to us the
highest goal for which it is worth and possible to win in this war - in the
name of God's sonship. We realize that the enemy has no right to take away our
human dignity, therefore every person is created in the image and likeness of God.
And we can say: no one will deprive us of Divine adoption! That's why we also sang: "God
is with us!" at the Evening Meal yesterday.
(…)
Let us discover our Divine adoption in this
holiday, let us be enlightened by the truth that the name of each of us is
written on God's palms. In the midst of the horrors of war, let us hear the
words of God the Father: "I will not leave you"!
Lord, today You who enter the Jordanian waves –
give us the strength to immerse ourselves in Your victorious power! Let this
Jordanian holy water, with which we receive communion, sprinkle ourselves, be
the wave that will cleanse ourselves, our homes, our Ukraine from any evil.
Because today we, who are fighting, protecting the dignity of a person, must
fulfill this gospel truth even in these tragic circumstances: "You are My
beloved son, you are My beloved daughter, whom I have pleased!
23/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from interview with Open Church
An important message is the Ukrainians'
understanding of what peace is. We see that in the mouth of the Russian
aggressor the word "peace" undergoes a devilish mutation. For him, it
means the destruction of Ukraine. Moreover, since Russia's war against Georgia,
the formula of "compulsion to peace" has been used. And today Russian
peacekeepers are coming to force us to peace, that is, to kill us. It is
important to convey the truth about real peace. For Ukrainians, real peace is
victory over the Russian aggressor.
20/01/2023 (Source)
Full interview with Ukrainian Pravda
There is a lot of pain around us: Mariupol,
Borodyanka, Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, Dnipro, Brovary - we can list the mutilated
cities and villages of our country for a long time. Why does God allow this
horror?
We dont know. We do not fully understand God's
plan.
It is obvious that through pain we learn
something, it transforms us and makes us different.
There is no excuse for inflicting pain, but we
must learn to experience it properly. There is no such person who goes through
life without ever experiencing pain. But poor is the person who lives, running
away from pain and difficulties. After all, the ability to experience pain
makes us indomitable.
Sometimes we can't change the circumstances and
avoid the pain. But what can we do? We can form our attitude both to pain and
to the circumstances in which we live.
Forming an attitude towards what hurts us is a
search for meaning, why we do it. Your question is a question about the search
for meaning: why?
If my suffering has meaning, then I understand
that it was not in vain.
We hear the following words in the Gospel:
"He who endures to the end will be saved."
From the beginning of the war, when the pain
was only increasing, people turned to the Church precisely for help in order to
find the meaning of their pain. And when a person - be it a soldier, be it a
civilian, or even a statesman - saw that there was a higher value for which it
was worth suffering, then that pain became a source of indomitability.
In such circumstances, a very special role and
mission of the Church appears. I remember how, during the painful days of the
siege of Kyiv, I visited the mayor of Kyiv, Vitalii Klitschko. I wanted to ask
how many people are left in Kyiv, what are their most urgent needs. We talked
about different things, and then he says to me: "You know, more than bread
and clothes, we need a word of hope." And apart from the Church, apart
from God's word, no one can give that hope. In Christ's Gospel, we see
life-giving higher values for which it is worth living.
The topic of pain is very complex, and each
person experiences this pain uniquely. I remember many such circumstances when
you cannot do anything for a person, but you can share their pain without even
saying anything. That's why we need to be close.
We do not know everything and we do not
understand. We should not explain everything, rationalize everything, because
war is nonsense that does not lend itself to a clear rational explanation.
But we can change our attitude to the circumstances we are in and overcome
them.
How should Ukrainians rightly treat Russians
from a Christian point of view?
When we hear the word "Russians" in
Ukraine today, images of mass torture, destroyed cities and villages appear
before our eyes. Therefore, in a human way, Ukrainians now feel that the
Russians are foreigners and murderers who came to take away from us everything that
we have and who we are.
We cannot compromise with evil. And it is
humanly difficult for us to see people in those murderers. We see that
everything that today opens its murderous mouth on Ukraine is the consequences
of the diseases of the post-Soviet society, which in Russia, instead of getting
better after the Soviet Union, began to rot.
I remember the words of Eldar Ryazanov, who
said: "We have a big country, we will rot for a long time."
But in a Christian way, we want to give
everyone a chance to repent. It is very difficult now.
Anger, especially when we see all the crimes, is a natural human instinct. If all those crimes did not cause rage in us, it would mean that we are complicit in evil, that is, that we tolerate and praise it in one way or another.
But anger needs transformation and framing. In
the Christian sense, righteous anger is the material for the virtue of courage.
We need courage today.
Courage to persevere, courage to conquer. Because
if anger is not transformed into courage, it can become destructive.
They say fear is a bad counselor. Anger can be
like that too. Therefore, Christian ascetic practice shows that we can indeed
transform anger into courage and resilience. This righteous anger can become a
force, a force that can win.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church – what is your
personal attitude towards it?
Relations between the Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, which was called the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, are historically complex.
We survived the process of liquidation of our
Church.
Allow me to clarify: is the Moscow Patriarchate
equal to the Russian state?
Yes and no. The Russian Orthodox Church in the
Soviet Union was an instrument of the state. Many historians claim that Comrade
Stalin was its real creator. It is obvious that it was a tool for channeling
the religious feelings of believers in the right direction for the Soviet
state.
A tragic moment in relations with the Russian
Orthodox Church was the pseudo-cathedral in Lviv in 1946, when the Stalinist
regime forcibly liquidated our Church and handed over all property to the
Russian Orthodox Church. Today, the Russian Orthodox Church lives by the
ideology and vision of itself and its territory from those times.
The leaders of this Church say that Ukraine is
their canonical territory. All former Soviet Union countries fall under this
definition. This is something that comes from the idea of conquests from the
time of Comrade Stalin.
I remember how, before the start of the
full-scale war in Ukraine, the then head of the department of external church
relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeev, received an
order from the hands of Putin and said: "Many people say that our
department of external relations is the church's Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
but in fact it is not, we are a church Ministry of Defence".
Going back to your previous question, I will be
honest: we tried to enter into a dialogue to build a relationship to heal the
wounds of the past.
And what happened?
Unfortunately, there has been no big change. Why?
Because our position was that we want to build normal relations with the
Russian Orthodox Church, as with all Orthodox Churches. We want to talk to them
as to the subject of the relationship. After all, we still have the wounds of
the Lviv pseudo-cathedral, and perhaps the Orthodox side also has them from the
1990s, when our Church came out of the underground and regained its own. We
felt that until 2014, the UOC was still building its subjectivity, but then
Moscow completely deprived it of this.
How did it happen in practice?
When I met with Metropolitan Alfeev, I said:
"We want to have a dialogue with the Lavra", he replied: "They
are not ready. The only entity with whom it is possible to talk about them is
us." That is, Moscow already then took away the subjectivity of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church and acted as its sole spokesperson to world Christianity.
It was quite difficult for us. Moscow did not
really want to talk to us. They did not consider the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic
Church a subject of negotiations. Rather, they spoke with the Vatican about us,
but without us. It is interesting that the Apostolic capital constantly
emphasized: "Here is the local Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church -
communicate with it." As you can see, our relationship is not easy and
quite different.
From the blessed memory of Volodymyr Sabodan, I
had many good personal meetings. Instead, all my requests for a bilateral
meeting with Metropolitan Onufriy were always refused.
We saw each other exclusively at state events.
Didn't want to meet?
In a human way, we obviously greeted each
other, but we did not reach bilateral relations as heads of Churches. Although
we constantly initiated them.
Should the activity of the UOC be banned?
I doubt it. I don't want to tell our
legislators, but... We were also banned, we lived underground. Moreover, the
very fact that we were a martyred Church, which did not become a Church
collaborating with the Soviet authorities, saved our moral authority.
It is important to understand that banning the
Church does not mean the end of its existence. Why? Because the Church is not
only a religious structure, not only an organization that has a charter, a
leader, a religious center. The Church is a people who have constitutional
rights. As long as there are people oriented towards Moscow Orthodoxy in
Ukraine, this Church will exist. Even when, according to state law, it would be
illegal. If it is banned, then we will give it the palm of martyrdom, we will
give it the opportunity to go into deaf opposition and become those who will
later claim authenticity.
I recently told one legislator: "If you
want to perpetuate the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, ban it."
But the state has the right to take care of its
national security. And therefore, if among Catholics, Protestants, Jews,
Muslims, or Orthodox there are traitors who are dangerous for the state, in
particular during martial law, then they must be identified and, observing all
laws, certain measures must be taken.
We should not be persecuted for belonging to
the church structure, but for crimes against our state, because in this we are
all equal.
Therefore, perhaps it is necessary to ask the
same question in a different way and understand that it is not really a
question of restricting someone's religious freedom, but that the northern
neighbor, who is killing us today, cannot use any of the Churches for his
geopolitical goals
By the way, how can you comment on the SBU
searches in the churches and monasteries of the UOC?
This is a matter for state authorities. When
they have reasons for it, then they act.
We'll take note of that for now. That is, we
cannot somehow form our position regarding the fact of searches. Let's see what
the result will be.
Regarding the legality of searches, their
legality, you should consult a lawyer. If the actions of the services are
lawful, then we cannot tell the law enforcement agencies how to act.
On January 7, the service of God in the
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was led by Metropolitan Epiphany, the head of the OCU. Will
we see the Divine Service of His Beatitude Sviatoslav in the Pochaiv Lavra?
Then, when this laurel is returned to us
(smiles) .
Do you claim this return?
We do not claim any property of the Orthodox
brothers.
Our Church in the Russian Empire was liquidated
as early as 1839. And all our property was given to the Orthodox. If we started
demanding his return today, we would start another wave of religious war.
There are national symbols that speak to minds
and hearts. And this is Sophia of Kyiv - the mother temple for all of us. It
cannot be claimed by one denomination, because everyone has common roots here.
God willing, one day we will all be one. That
is, all the divisions that exist today between the Orthodox world and the
Catholic world, I hope, will be overcome step by step. And then Sophia of Kyiv
will once again be a common temple for all the heirs of the Kyiv Church.
Therefore, we do not claim property, but we
say: "This is also about our history, our identity. We also want to feel
at home there."
The form of this can be negotiated. We say the
same about the Pochaiv Lavra: we do not want to make property claims, but we
say that it is a historically great spiritual center of our Church.
Researchers of Kyiv Christianity in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth claim that there was once an unwritten agreement
between the Orthodox in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Greek Catholics in
Pochaivska regarding the printing of liturgical books: what was printed in
Pochaev was no longer printed in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Why? Because we
exchanged books.
The Pochaiv Lavra was a unique center of
musical, spiritual, religious and international culture.
Obviously, when the Union was liquidated, the
Russian tsars turned Pochaiv into a border outpost. And the Soviet authorities
specially annexed the Pochaiv Lavra and its territory to the Ternopil Oblast in
order to destroy the Union in Galicia.
Therefore, the one who will make the decision
to whom to grant access for prayer must take into account that the Pochaiv
Lavra has a historical connection with our Church.
UGCC cherishes and remembers this history.
You say that you are not interested in
property, but access for service is? What specific steps do you take to gain
access to the Pochaiv Lavra?
None yet, because we have not heard of any
concrete steps regarding changing the status of this holy place. We will see
what opportunities will be created, we will communicate with those who will
create new circumstances.
Property claims are one thing, and the right to
pray where our ancestors prayed is another. We do not question the ownership of
the state, but we want to have access to this shrine.
We try to build our own, and not wait for
something to be handed to us.
In recent years, we have seen great activity of
the OCU. Even the fact that they managed to conduct the Divine Service in the
Lavra already means a lot. Against this background, the Ukrainian
Greek-Catholic Church looks quite slow. What steps do you take in order not to
lose your faithful, so that they do not transfer to the OCU?
Even during the war, we try to be the Church
first and foremost. And in no case do we want to become a tool in some
political movements, even if they are super popular.
Obviously, we are watching the reformatting of
Ukrainian Orthodoxy. This is an internal Orthodox situation that also has an
important political dimension. We do not participate in this, just as we did
not participate in the movements around the Unification Cathedral or receiving
the Tomos. Therefore, there is no need to wait for some kind of activity from
us, because these are the internal affairs of our Orthodox brothers.
As for the faithful, I don't think we are
losing them. We try to do our own thing. We are active where we should be
active, where we feel that this is our competence, our field of activity.
Who in the Vatican is informing Pope Francis
about the war in Ukraine today?
I don't have a complete answer to this question
and I can't say what channels of information he uses. But, knowing the Pope
personally, I will say that he does not like to be tied to any of the channels.
He, like a good Jesuit, lives by the rule: we consulted and I decided. That is,
he listens to a lot of people, but makes decisions independently and forms his
vision.
When it comes to socio-political circumstances
or matters of military circumstances, he is not infallible here. He could be
wrong. Therefore, it is very important to communicate.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, I
personally communicated with him very intensively.
Why didn't you refuse him from the Stations of
the Cross, when a Russian woman and a Ukrainian woman carried the cross together?
Then there were several controversial statements by the Pope. Why didn't you
influence him if you were constantly in contact with him?
We influenced as much as we could.
Why didn't it work?
This is another question. There were reasons
that I may not fully know and understand. But you see that his position is
evolving, as are, ultimately, Western leaders. Remember how the German
authorities reacted to our ambassador at the beginning of the war: "You
will be gone in two or three days, why should we help you?". Today, the
position is different. And the Vatican lives in the information field of Europe
and Italy in particular.
Indeed, I had the feeling that we were not
fully understood. I asked myself why? And he realized: to understand us, one
must be with us. For example, the papal nuncio is here with us. He understands
us, because he never left Kyiv for a single day. That is, the further away from
the epicenter of events, the more it looks different. Although our mission to
inform had an effect and consequences.
You mentioned the Stations of the Cross. This
was not the Way of the Cross of reconciliation with Russia. It was the Way of
the Cross, which takes place every year on Easter Friday in the Colosseum. It
was prepared even before the beginning of the great war.
We learned about the content on Monday of Holy
Week, and the event itself took place on Friday. We immediately realized that
this is completely out of context now. These gestures are offensive to us.
What did you do?
First of all, we talked.
Did you call the Pope?
Of course!
What did he say?
He could not understand what the protest of
Ukrainians was about. After all, reconciliation is one of the main messages of
Christianity. How is it that Ukrainians today do not perceive the main message
of Christianity?
Apostle Paul considered himself the apostle of reconciliation.
I told him: "Holy Father, we are not saying that we reject the idea of reconciliation. We say that we cannot be forced to reconcile." So my comment was, "Yes, but not yet."
What did the Pope say?
He listened very carefully.
And did it in his own way?
But what did he do? No prepared texts were
read. That is, they did not change the already announced ceremony, but there
was no interpretation, no text about reconciliation.
In addition, I communicated with other heads of
the Vatican Curia, in particular the Secretary of State, to whom I explained
the mutation of the concept of peace carried out by Russia. I explained that
the idea of "compulsion to peace" is the idea of Russian
aggression, which it first used against Georgia. Therefore, today, when the
idea of "compulsion to peace" is filled with religious symbols, it
can really create a situation where Ukrainians will generally reject the idea
of peace as such.
First you have to stop killing us. Then justice
must be restored - they must leave our land. The moment must come when the
criminal will be called a criminal and will be convicted, compensation must be
paid to Ukraine and the Ukrainians who suffered. That is, certain steps must be
taken before the moment when we can start talking about the reconciliation
process.
And now I can claim that we were heard. On
November 24, the Pope wrote a letter to the Ukrainian people. I think we need
to go back and read it again. The Pope said everything there! It was not about
any diplomacy, it was not about any traditions of mediation between warring
parties, which the Vatican has always followed in its policy. It talks about
the heart of a pastor, which is rooting for his people.
We read this letter in all our parishes.
Therefore, we see that it is worth speaking, even when you will not be heard
immediately, they will not immediately change the planned action, but the truth
about Ukraine has its own power and we must testify to it.
Does the Russian ambassador to the Vatican have
a great influence on the Pope? Is there even a pro-Russian lobby in the
Vatican?
I think that it exists, because Russia very
intensively developed its diplomatic relations with the Vatican, invested huge
resources in the promotion of its culture in Italy, in particular in the
Vatican. Since the war in Donbas began, it has "bombarded" the
Vatican with various initiatives, including cultural ones.
Therefore, I think that the Ukrainian state
should activate high-quality diplomacy at this level, so that we can also be
actively represented there.
You saw the Pope in November. Did he talk about
his meeting with the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, Kirill
Budanov?
There was no conversation about the Pope's
meeting with Budanov. I didn't want to ask because it would be unethical.
What then is the Pope's participation in the
exchange of prisoners?
Indeed, the Pope is very intensively involved
in all possible channels to free Ukrainian prisoners. I personally submit a
list of documents for prisoners of war at least once a month, because when I
visit our communities, I constantly hear: "Help!". I tell people:
"Okay, give me specific information." And I immediately try to hand
it over to the Pope. Even during the last meeting, he handed over a folder with
documents. And I know that things are moving.
What tools does the Vatican have? These are
diplomatic channels. How successful are they today? This is the question.
We see that Russia despises diplomacy. Sometimes for them, diplomacy is like a servant to satisfy military and political decisions. Therefore, it is difficult to answer how effective the diplomatic path is today in general for any settlement of this confrontation. But I can testify personally that the Apostolic Capital is making all possible efforts.
We are already beginning to see many problems
that we will have to solve after the victory. There are a lot of wounds,
worries, hatred. What do you see as the biggest challenges for Ukrainian
society after the victory?
To see everything, you have to wait for the
victory. But the wounds we mentioned are already visible, and they will make
themselves known. The signs of a wounded society will be very different. In
particular, there will be a high level of aggressiveness and conflict.
Therefore, today everyone who works with people
needs to be doubly wise so as not to offend anyone, not to provoke anyone. In
fact, it is quite difficult for our priests at that stage. We see that domestic
violence is on the rise. And this is also a challenge, in particular for the
Church.
I see another important problem that may not be
so pressing yet. However, I have a feeling that society is getting tired of
democracy.
I wanted to ask you about democracy...
There is a risk that we are beginning to be
impressed by the specter of a dictatorship in Ukraine. And it is very
dangerous.
Throughout the years of Ukraine's independence,
our Church trained citizens to mature personal responsibility for society. We
see that the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, was to some extent
the fruit of such upbringing. Society wanted to control the government, became
very demanding of it and did not want to repeat the mistakes of previous
revolutions.
I remember the Maidan of 2013-2014. There was
no single bright political leader on whom responsibility for the state could be
placed, unlike the slogans of 2004, remember? Yushchenko! Yushchenko!
But, unfortunately, today some are beginning to
feel that democracy does not provide an adequate level of security, that it is
weak in responding to challenges.
Fatigue appears, which forces you to give the
responsibility to someone else: I chose you, and now you take care of yourself
- I'll stand aside and see what you can do. Again: this is a very big danger!
We understand that the world supports Ukraine
precisely because we want to be a free, democratic state. The world supports
democracy in Ukraine as opposed to the totalitarian regime of its northern
neighbor.
We must not turn into an internal copy of the
one who attacked us. Psychologists talk about cases when the victim begins to
resemble his offender.
Therefore, I urge everyone to remember and
understand that the war in Ukraine is a war for democracy and values.
We all need a fair trial as a separate branch
of government, true parliamentarism, a true political culture in Ukraine that
would provide certain counterweights. That is why the challenges of a real
democracy, a transparent and open society in Ukraine after the end of the war
will be very difficult.
Finally: is it a sin to wish for death?
Yes, a sin. Because when I wish death to
another, I die myself. This is a very delicate thing in wartime.
Sometimes I have to stop the aggressor, even at
the cost of his death, but then I have to choose life for my people, my
Motherland.
Is it a sin to wish Putin dead?
(Pauses
and begins to laugh) Oh, you will have to repent for that.
19/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Lord, we know that today you immerse yourself
in your baptism in the pain and suffering of Ukraine. You take upon yourself
the sins of our people to wash us away. You, as the culprit, ask for baptism instead
of those who are really guilty. You are the only Saint, with your holiness you
purify us, weak people. Give us strength, cleanse our Ukrainian land of all
uncleanness, especially that which brings death and destruction. Lord, you
who are going to immerse yourself in the waters of the Jordan, be blessed,
because you come to us as the living God revealed to us in our circumstances.
17/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
The word "freedom" is devalued today,
as well as "love" or "peace". Now, more than ever, we in
Ukraine feel that we are paying a very high price for freedom. It is not enough
to be free from slavery, you must become free for something. And we want to be
free in order to say "no" to Russian slavery forever, to be free for
God, to do good, to protect human life. That is why the Russian occupier is
killing Ukrainians, because they said no to Russian, imperial, communist slavery.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Words during Prosphora with the Patriarch
Many say that this year will be the year of
victory, but we still have to win it. Russia has already lost, but we have
not won yet. We
will approach this victory step by step. You will see that the time will
come and we will gather here in the Patriarchal Cathedral to celebrate together
the victory over our enemy. And may God's blessing generously bear its
fruits on all of us.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on Sunday before Epiphany
Today, we in Ukraine are so in need of a
herald that the war will end, that the period of destruction is finally coming
to an end. We are so in need of preparation for the new reality — Ukraine after
the war. We understand, more than ever before, that it is impossible to
continue living the way we lived until now. And the victory of Ukraine will not
come when we win back all the occupied territories, but when we come out of
this fiery cauldron of war renewed, become a different people, qualitatively
different from the people, the state that we were before the beginning of this
great calamity.
15/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
In this difficult time of war, we see that God
makes the impossible possible, giving us the strength to fulfill God's law, to
live by our baptism, as Saint Basil the Great testified. The life of a
Christian is the life of the baptismal essence of our daily effort. The Lord
God becomes the guarantor that, thanks to His help, we will be able to fulfill
God's commandments and the vocation to which He calls us in Baptism. He gives
us strength without hope to hope. He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
The key and secret of Ukraine's victory lies in Jesus Christ.
14/01/2023 (Source)
Full interview with NV
In your New Year's greeting, you said that
every day, by doing good, we bring the day of victory closer. Do you feel how
long the road to it will be?
It is difficult to predict any terms. I watch
how the heart of the Ukrainian people beats. Every day we have lived, in
which we have defeated death and done something good, we have already won.
Because by doing good, we overcome evil. As one wise man said: "It is
better to light one candle than to complain about the darkness." And so we
have been moving for more than 10 months. In the plans of those who came
from the war, there was neither a new year nor Christmas for us. But we are
here, the new year is here, Christmas is here and there will be victory. I
am convinced that the inner strength and courage we are full of will be enough
for victory.
It's a little sad that every day we survive
instead of living.
It's like looking at it from which side. When
one lives this day, running away from difficulties, he is not living. If we
live every day to do good for ourselves personally, then we die every day. And
if we forge victory every day, then we live to the fullest. Our fathers, who
were expelled from Melitopol, and freed heroes tell the same story: we did not
know how long we would have to live in captivity - a day, two, a month, a week,
but we wanted to live this time with dignity. These are very strong words.
Without looking behind the curtain of time, without spying on the future, they
tried to live in the day that the Lord God had given them.
Another pressing issue of recent weeks is the
events surrounding the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the Moscow Patriarchate in
general. How do you see it should be solved?
It is clear to everyone that the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church (MP) is an integral part of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
It is quite natural that with the beginning of the war, it is going through an
identity crisis: there are patriots who are faithful to this Church and at the
same time loyal to the Ukrainian state, who defend their Motherland. This division
causes an internal crisis in this Church. The fact of collaboration of its
representatives with the Russian occupier is also obvious. And we lacked an
official reaction of the church hierarchy regarding this fact.
We must pray for the wisdom of our government
and its determination, so that there is a political will to act in a certain
direction. Here, everyone is equal before the law: whether they are Orthodox
of the Moscow Patriarchate, OCU, or Catholic, or Jewish, or Muslim. And when
there is a proven fact of collaborationism, then the state cannot remain
silent, otherwise it covers it up. Instead, there is freedom of conscience and
freedom of religion. Their observance is a matter of national security.
This is important for the state from the point of view of its obligations to
the world community. It is necessary to act wisely in the question of what
tools to use to neutralize Moscow agents in cassocks.
Experts say that it is wrong to ban it, so that
this Church does not become a martyr, because it will only strengthen its
position.
Our Church was banned during Stalin's time, so
what? We won. That is, banning does not mean ceasing its existence. If we want
to perpetuate the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, then let's ban it. That would
defeat our purpose. We need to pray for the wisdom of our lawmakers to help
them act skillfully here.
How does the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
perceive the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra? Would the fathers of the UGCC want to have
the opportunity to serve in the Lavra churches?
We have no claims on the shrine of the
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, although we are watching these processes very carefully.
Even when we, as a Church, do not claim to worship there, we, as citizens of
Ukraine, do not care. There is another Lavra that had a certain historical
connection to our Church and for a long time was a very important spiritual and
cultural center of it – Pochaivska [in the Ternopil Region]. At one time, the
famous Basilian monastery was located there, the Pochaiv icon of the Mother of
God crowned with papal crowns. This should be remembered. There was also an
important printing center of our Church. And we don't care what happens there.
As for the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, we will ask the Lord God for wisdom for
statesmen, so that this national shrine truly remains a common treasure of our
people.
Over the past year, Ukrainians have heard and
seen ambiguous statements and actions of the Pope regarding the war. How do you
comment on this?
In Ukrainian-Vatican relations, I would call
2022 the year of great misunderstandings. I had the feeling that our Ukrainian
authorities do not fully understand what the Vatican is, and the Apostolic Capital
was not able to quickly understand the constantly changing situation. All of us
were somewhat surprised and hurt by certain phrases of the Holy Father.
Although, according to the ancient tradition of the first millennium, the Holy
See was the highest arbiter of the Ecumenical Church. This is its function in
international relations. And precisely as the highest appeal center of the
Christian world, the Vatican became the founder of European diplomacy, and
later diplomacy on a global scale. Therefore, such a position as a world
arbiter imposes a certain style on activity. The arbitrator tries to be
equidistant or equidistant from the parties to the conflict. Therefore, there
was an attempt by the Holy See to maintain neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine.
We all tried to convey the truth. I think we were slowly changing the vision of
the Vatican, as well as European society, regarding the war in Ukraine. There
was a profound change in the perception of Ukraine by the world community. In
this context, the position of the Apostolic capital also changed.
Did you communicate with the Pope during the
war?
Yes, as the Head of the Church, I had
constant personal contact with Pope Francis. Our last meeting took place on
November 7, the day the Pope returned from Bahrain. I remember, the day
before, he spoke about the humanism of Dostoevsky, about the professionalism of
the Russian ambassador to the Vatican, and so on. And so on Monday, November 7,
when there was another information crisis in Ukraine regarding the perception
of the Pope's statements, I was at his place. I have known him personally
for many years. It was a warm and deep meeting. He perceived me as someone who
rose from the dead, because I survived the siege of Kyiv. My every word was
very authoritative for him. Our conversation began with my question: do you
know what is being said about you in Ukraine today? - What? — The fact that you
read Dostoyevsky poorly. - Why? I explained to him: you know, today,
unfortunately, regarding Russia, Europe and the Apostolic Capital fall into a
certain trap. Do you remember what arose in the imagination of a cultured
person before the beginning of the Second World War, when they said
"Germany": German philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries, high
standards of music, poetry, but the Nazis, that is, criminals, were in power.
And then the whole world wondered how a great cultured people could create
Auschwitz and start the Holocaust of the Jewish people. Cultured, educated
Europe and the intellectual circles of the Catholic Church fall into this same
trap today. Russia has made great efforts to promote the myth of the
"sanctity of Russian culture." I remember how whole Jesuit circles
were formed to study "Russian spirituality". Professor Ovsiychuk
introduced the concept of the Ukrainian icon to cultural and scientific
circulation only in the 1990s. Until now, no one had heard of the existence of
a separate Ukrainian icon. I am not talking about the spirituality of
theologians, the liturgy of the Kyiv Church. Therefore, when the
intellectual circles of the Vatican hear about Russia, Russian spirituality,
everyone imagines certain patterns created artificially, like a soap bubble.
Currently, Nazis are clearly in power in Russia. Now, when the world is looking
at the genocide of Ukrainians, everyone is wondering: how can such a great
nation, which created Dostoyevsky, commit such baseness? That is why there were
these sentiments of the Pope, who shared Dostoevsky's humanism. It was not a
fascination with humanism. It was a surprise: how could those who have such a
culture come to crime?
I asked the Pope for a few things. I won't tell
you everything - I'll keep the intrigue. But I asked to write a letter to the
Ukrainian people. He said that my people do not understand his politics and
diplomacy. People need to feel his paternal warmth. To feel that he is with
Ukraine, that he is not indifferent to the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian
people. Then the Pope asked for help. And we tried to help him write such a
letter. And what is interesting, the Pope signed it on November 24, just when
nine months of war had passed. This letter was read in all our churches as the
Pope's address to the Ukrainian people.
It turns out that it was you who influenced the
fact that the Pope "warmed up" to Ukraine?
If I said that, I would be a very proud person.
There are certain processes in which I also take part.
Can we say that Russia is now the embodiment of
evil?
This is a deep theological question. I think
that Russian politics and its actions are the bearer of evil. That's for sure!
As Christ says: "...by their fruits you will know them." All those
who gave birth to the ideology of "Russian peace", who bless the war,
fight, kill, support the war as citizens of that state, are complicit in the
crime. It is still difficult for me to call Russia the embodiment of evil.
This, you know, can only be said by the Lord God, who sees the depths of human
hearts. And maybe history will tell about it all.
Do you leave Russia the opportunity to rethink
its history and everything it has done?
The Lord God always gives a person a chance to
repent. I think that repentance for Russia must be a very deep process. If
this Church and this people are not capable of repentance, then it is very
difficult to talk about the true Christian faith in national dimensions. The
trait of a true Christian is the ability to repent.
Today in Russia we don't see anything close to
that.
Unfortunately.
How do you see Ukraine after the war? What will
forever change in this state for the better?
It's hard to say until the end, but there are a
few thoughts. First of all, we who survived the war will really have a very
deep understanding and respect for the dignity of the human person and human
life. Because those who have seen war and death will never forget it. We will
rebuild everything, our cities and villages will be better than before the war.
Perhaps this war will be the final point in everything that we have called the
"scoop": starting from architecture and ending with the very social,
state system. I hope that we will finally get rid of the Soviet vision of
man as a tool or a cog in a big machine, and we will respect man and the
dignity of his life. I am convinced that we will be able to take care of the
common good, because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the pendulum swung
in the other direction: from excessive collectivization to a culture or
circumstances of excessive individualism, when one's own benefit, one's own
enrichment, even one's own happiness has become a kind of idol. We did not
know how to understand and evaluate the common good, but now we understand: we
can defeat Russia when we defend the Motherland as a whole community. The
Ukrainian army is a national army. Teachers, scientists, businessmen left
everything and went to fight, because this is a common cause. They went to
fight for a better future for their children, for their independent state. We
are beginning to understand that the state is not something hostile to be
defended against. The state is a common good and a condition for survival and a
dignified existence. Next is solidarity. We see that without solidarity not
only within our people, but also the whole world, we cannot stand with Ukraine.
Solidarity saves lives. This is the ability to help each other in trouble.
You said earlier that Christmas must be
celebrated and rejoiced at this holiday. What about events like birthdays?
It is worth distinguishing between these
things. There are similarities and differences between them. When we talk about
Christmas or Easter, we are talking about the celebration of a certain reality
that goes beyond the human horizon. To celebrate Christmas is to accept a gift
from God, the gift of His only begotten Son, the gift of His joy. In the most
difficult times, our people celebrated Christmas. Our children caroled in their
hiding places. Celebrating Christmas at the time of the underground of our
Church, at the time of militant atheism, turned into a manifestation of
socio-political protest. The police chased the carolers who caroled under the
windows. Moreover, we learned the truths of the Christian faith from carols.
Therefore, when it comes to the fact that the Lord God wants to give us
something, then do not be afraid to accept Him - do not be afraid to celebrate.
When it comes to other circumstances, such as
birthdays, anniversaries, I call for wisdom and balance. Psychologists say
that the enemy wants to lead us into total depression. He wants to take away
positive emotions from us, so that we always cry, so that we do not have the
opportunity to restore our mental and physical strength. Therefore, let's not
give him such pleasure. We need to preserve the hygiene of work and rest even
during war. If it's about social entertainment, loud parties, then maybe you
shouldn't do it. But when it comes to the smallest and necessary for
maintaining mental and physical health, it must be done without fail. I
recall the advice of a wise psychologist: when you are sitting in bomb
shelters, take care of your hygiene - wash and brush your teeth every day. This
is what our soldiers do at the front. There is a minimum necessary to maintain
spiritual, mental and physical balance,
Regarding church holidays: you recently met with His Beatitude Epiphanius, Head of
the OCU, and discussed the creation of a joint working group. Tell me how this
process will proceed?
First, the background story. The so-called
calendar wars began at the end of the 16th century, when the Gregorian calendar
was introduced. Then the Polish king Stefan Batory tried to forcefully
introduce a new style in his state. You know, at that time both the Orthodox
and the Union sides of the Kyiv Metropolitanate became victims of violent
administrative pressure from the state. And, obviously, this was not accepted. It
has absolutely nothing to do with Moscow. The epicenter of that period of
the calendar war was the city of Lviv. Then churches were forcibly closed,
priests and faithful were expelled from the churches when they wanted to
celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar (January 7). And this left
a deep wound in the memory of both our Orthodox brothers and us Greek
Catholics.
The reform must be done unambiguously. But how
to convince society to support it? Our Church, in particular in Galicia and
modern Poland, understands that the calendar reform will be perceived by many
of our people as a transition to the Polish calendar.
The task of church leaders is to be sensitive to the debate, even to the political charges that the topic of the calendar may have, but to care for the good of the people. And do what is right, not what everyone likes. In today's circumstances, we have a unique situation that cannot be ignored. Our society demands a calendar reform. And we take this very seriously.
Today, in our Church, we see that the number of
those who consciously, not politically, ecclesiastically, want a new style is
growing. Most of them are in the West of Ukraine and in Kyiv. This is exactly
what we talked about with His Beatitude Epiphanius, because we want to make the
transition to a new style together. We need to understand how many people will
support it in order to minimize internal tensions. We need to depoliticize it a
little. We offered the Orthodox side to create a joint working group where experience
can be exchanged. Our Church has more experience in calendar reform, and our
Orthodox brothers are just gaining it. The permission to celebrate Christmas on
December 25 is a kind of step to see how the faithful will react. When I
received from His Beatitude the new church calendar of the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine for 2023 at the meeting, it was the Julian calendar. An interesting
gesture.
That is, we will work together and our
patriotic forces will no longer be able to accuse us that we are Polonizing
someone when we want to move towards the implementation of the Gregorian
calendar.
Will the next Christmas be held in a new style
in both Churches?
Let's wish ourselves that, okay? Let's wish for
changes together. I really want it, and we will do everything to make it
happen. I am an optimist, although I try to balance between two extremes. In
every Church there is a group of progressives and a group of traditionalists.
We need to convince people that the calendar is not a dogmatic issue. The
calendar is a condition that must be agreed upon. Someone is more ready to
transition, someone is not yet ready. Although all this directs our energies in
another direction instead of concentrating on solving the biggest existential
problem of our time — war. And we start discussing when and what to celebrate.
When the house is on fire, it is not the time to discuss which icons to hang on
which wall.
11/01/2023 (Source)
The Son of God became a Child, your Child,
crying mother. The Son of God, who became a Child, wanted to suffer with us,
took upon himself our suffering and pain, became incarnate in our Ukrainian
pain, to turn it into a redemptive, holy sacrifice for the future of Ukraine
11/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
The enemy is trying to shell our peaceful towns
and villages, the places where the most people gather. It seems that in recent
days, in particular, the enemy has been deliberately shelling the markets where
people come to buy food.
10/01/2023 (Source)
Press Conference with journalists
Today we are experiencing the holidays and the
beginning of the new year as a great gift from God. Recalling the beginning
of the war at the end of February in Kyiv, I can say that none of us thought
that we would live to see the new holidays, until the beginning of the new
year, because they wanted to steal it from us. But we are, we survived! And
today, all those who are engaged in analytical activities, people who try to
analyze events from a military, international, diplomatic point of view, say
that this year really has every chance to be a year of victory. Therefore, I
wish all of us victory in 2023!
10/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on Sunday after Nativity
What will Ukraine be like after victory? What does the light of Christ's
Christmas tell us on this topic? During the war, we properly pray for our
army, support it. The saying that today all of Ukraine is either at the front
or for the front has gained popularity. Although we believe in one God, we say
that we believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, because we understand that our
lives depend on them today, just as the life of the Child depended on Joseph.
Warned by an angel in the night, he had to get up, take the Child and His
mother and save them.
This day of the Cathedral of the Most Holy
Theotokos we in the people still call the holiday of the Holy Family. Today we
welcome our sisters of the Holy Family. Consecrated persons, like the
evangelical Nazarene, are the driving force of the new history of salvation,
which the Lord God is making through his Church. But, celebrating the day of
the Holy Family, we cannot help but look into the face of the Ukrainian family,
which is now wounded and divided. Listening to the story about Herod the
murderer, about the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, we see the story of
millions of Ukrainians who were forced to leave their homes and flee to
different parts of Europe and the globe.
We ask: Lord, one day send an angel to them,
tell them to take their children and mothers and return to their native land.
We want Ukraine to be like this after the war.
However, there is also some deeper meaning that
God's word wants to tell us today. As we figuratively say today: "I
believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine," because our lives depend on them,
so after the end of the war, we all, as a people, must say: "I believe in
the Ukrainian family." The family, as a faithful, fruitful and
inseparable union of a man and a woman, blessed in the Sacrament of Marriage
and open to the birth of children, is the place where a new Ukraine will be
born by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit and that Nazarene, about whom we
hear in Christ's Gospel. How important it is that all those who today think
about Ukraine after the war understand that the main point in the
"Marshal's plan" for the reconstruction of our country should be the
sanctity of the Ukrainian family and respect for it! Without this, there will
be no real recovery. This is Jacob who speaks to us about the future as the
first bishop of Jerusalem. And we, as the Church, must take care to support the
Ukrainian family, to heal its wounds, so that our young girls and boys are not
afraid of married life, that they trust the idea of a new Ukraine and have
the courage to give birth to children in Ukraine, raise them here, and pass on
the faith to them here to God, here to build the future of our native people
and our Church.
08/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
Despite the simulation of the Christmas truce,
the fighting at the front does not stop for a minute. Even on this festive day,
the enemy does not stop killing us, shelling our towns and villages. Our border areas in the North will
suffer from shelling: Chernihiv Oblast, Sumy Oblast and Kharkiv Oblast. The
Zaporizhia and Kherson regions are being hit by Russian attacks, but the center
of fire and the biggest military clashes is our Donbas.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on Nativity
Experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to the
war, we are happy that the whole world has come in solidarity with us, started
helping us, in particular with means of defense, thanks to which we can protect
life. But if we rejoice, receiving support from people, then how we should be
comforted by the help of God himself! We must sing together with heaven and
earth: God is with us! Let us not be afraid to accept that joy, let us hasten
to worship the newborn Savior - and we will become stronger.
The whole world is now asking itself the
question: what is the secret of the resilience and courage of the Ukrainian
people, who dared to stand against an unfair, much larger attacker? The secret
of our stability is the power of God, which is constantly born in us, renewed,
manifested even in our weakness, as the apostle Paul reminds us today (cf. 2 Cor. 12, 9). And the
bearer of the power of God is the meek and fragile Child of God, the sign about
which the shepherds heard from the angels from heaven, "for as if the
unwise God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weak God is stronger than human
strength" (1 Cor. 1, 25).
Let's rejoice and share joy with the help of
the ancestral carol. Back in the days of the communist regime, our Christmas
carol was a certain form of socio-political protest, a spiritual weapon that
the godless authorities were very afraid of. Our followers caroled in hiding
places, Stalin's prisoners caroled in the cold expanses of Siberia, the
underground Church caroled... Growing in that joy, we strengthened ourselves,
received the necessary means of spiritual struggle in order to win. And we won.
Because today, where are those who covered the mouth of a Ukrainian caroling?!
Gone like dew in the sun!
Let us rejoice, let us thank the Lord God that
He is with us, that He was born in Ukraine. Where God is the center of the
world, there is fullness of life and joy.
Let our Christmas joy and caroling visit those
who stand guard in the frosty steppes of Ukraine, our military. They gave us
this holiday that the enemy wanted to steal from us. Let our soldiers carol,
and let our long-suffering Ukrainian people rejoice together with them in the
God who was born among us.
We ask: Lord, as You came to the dark cave of
Bethlehem, having upset and defeated the child killer Herod, so come today to
our prisoners of war, to the prisoners of the Russian aggressor, be their
strength, hope and comfort.
We congratulate you on Christmas and want to
share the power of heavenly Christmas joy with our brothers and sisters in the
occupied territories. We pour our thoughts and prayers to Donetsk, Luhansk,
Zaporizhzhia, Melitopol, which celebrates Christmas without priests, to
occupied Berdyansk, in particular to our "prisoners for the sake of
Christ", fathers Ivan and Bohdan. To you, dear fathers, we send an
angel to tell you: do not be afraid! I announce to you great joy: today a
Savior was born to you!
06/01/2023 (Source)
Christmas message
Celebrating Christmas from year to year, we
delve into the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God in human history,
which became an integral part of the history of our people with the Baptism
of Russia-Ukraine. This year, when in the Ukrainian sky the enemy is trying to
dim the glow of the Christmas star with its missiles and bombs, we should pay attention
not to the calendar, not to astronomical phenomena, but to the fact that Christ
came today to be born in the body of a tortured, crucified and wounded Ukraine.
Perhaps it sounds paradoxical, but our victory in this war will come not by the
power of the mighty of this world, but by the newborn Child of God, about whom
Isaiah prophesied: "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; power
is on his shoulders; and they will give him a name: Wonderful Counselor, Strong
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Is. 9, 5).
To celebrate Christmas means not to be afraid
of heavenly joy in the midst of a sea of tears and blood. Allowing Christmas
joy to enter our hearts is a guarantee of our stability and indomitability, our
ability to overcome all life's challenges, as explained by St. Paul: "I
know how to be in humility, I know how to be in abundance: in everything and in
all circumstances I am used to being full and starving, living in abundance and
suffering the poor. I can do all things through him who strengthens me"
(Phil. 4, 12-13).
Now, during the war, we should celebrate
Christmas more than ever.
(…)
Having received the power of the born Son of
God, we are called to share it with our brothers and sisters to strengthen
their faith, confirm their hope, and cement their love. Singing carols is not
about having a loud party. Caroling is about sharing the power and joy of
Christ's Nativity, in which the Lord God originally laid down the promise of
Easter triumph. That is why many generations of our ancestors drew inspiration
and strength to fight against the enslavers and invaders from their faith in
the incarnate Christ, our crucified and risen Savior. Let us recall how our
insurgents in hiding places and prisoners of Stalin's concentration camps were united
in the fight against the enemy by our ancestral carols, how our underground
Church caroled despite the repression of the communist authorities. In those
dark times, carols became a hymn of victory over the night of atheism and
godlessness, a prophecy of the inevitable fall of the prison of the nations,
the Soviet Union. Today, let the Ukrainian army on the front line carol. Let
our captives, the wounded, and those brothers and sisters who are in the
temporarily occupied territories carol. Let the joy of Christmas carols in
their mouths turn into a hymn of victory over the Russian invader. Let our
cities and villages, our faithful families in Ukraine and in the settlements,
our volunteers and activists carol. May this caroling become a space of solidarity
and sharing of our gifts, both spiritual and temporal. Let our Christmas gifts
to Koliada be a personal contribution to supporting the Ukrainian army and
helping those affected by the war.
Dear brothers and sisters! I heartily
congratulate you all on Christmas: from East to West, from North to South - in
Ukraine and in settlements, on all continents of the world. In a special
way, I connect with our soldiers at the front. I embrace you with Christmas joy
and thank you for your courage and heroism. I embrace those who were forced
to leave their homes or even their native land by the war. I embrace our
wounded, both military and civilian. With tears, I embrace those who lost
relatives and friends in the past year. I share words of love and support
with everyone who is in captivity or in temporarily occupied territories,
who endures torture and abuse by the occupier and is unable to prepare
Christmas dinner for himself or pray in his native church on Christmas. I
sincerely congratulate our volunteers and those who
05/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
Modern killers set themselves political goals
that they want to achieve by military means. And that's why they kill everyone:
both their own and strangers. They do not consider it necessary to go to the newborn Christ, because
they are convinced that they seem to control the situation and have all the
necessary resources for this.
(…)
Jesus comes into the world as a serious
challenge. As two thousand years ago, He appears now in the thick of events,
hopeless situations, life's contradictions, war, occupation, struggle of
political parties, stubbornness and self-confidence of religious leaders. Despite the fact that the birth of
Christ was expected and announced for a long time, it became unexpected, as if
it caught everyone by surprise.
(…)
Recently we have been and continue to be
witnesses of the feat of ordinary people. With a smile on their face, they show
admirable determination, courage and self-sacrifice. Those whom we would
never have paid attention to in peacetime, during the calamity of war, show
themselves as true heroes. And thanks to them, most of us today will be able to
sit at the festive table and enjoy family comfort, while they cover our
Christmas with their breasts at the front and defend the birth of God among us.
05/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
We are experiencing the Sunday before Christmas
in the context of war. Today is the first day of the new year. We
feel that even the war is the story of the salvation of Ukraine, which the Lord
God writes because of the hope that He sends to His people. We understand
that the culmination will be in 2023: for us, Ukrainians, it will be nothing
more than victory over the unjust aggressor. The Lord seems to fuel this
hope of ours. We are now more confident in our ability to win than a year
ago and even before the war. It's hard to scare us. The Lord God really revives,
increases the flame of hope in us that the history of the Ukrainian people in
pain and suffering is a movement towards Him. At the same time, He comes
out to meet us. And this meeting, the joy of God in man and man in God,
will be the joy of our Christmas during the war, which we will celebrate in
just a few days.
May our incarnate Savior in his Christmas among
us give content and meaning to all our pains and sufferings. May he
fulfill all our expectations that we present to him in prayer. Let this
Christmas be a moment of great joy for the entire nation, which no one can take
away from us. They wanted to steal New Year's Eve from us with shelling,
strikes - both rockets and "Shaheds", but it passed and the first day
of the new year came. Likewise, Christmas will inevitably come, because
the Lord God is preparing it for us. We just have to accept it,
following the example of Saint Joseph, who was told by the angel not to be
afraid to accept what is born of Mary, because it is from the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
01/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Kyiv is wounded today... People have died,
there are many wounded, destroyed houses in the city center. Several metro
stations are closed due to the fall of rocket debris on the tracks. And on this
first day of the new year, our capital is just beginning to recover from that
massive blow.
We have started a year that will be a victory,
a year of victory for our Motherland
01/02/2023 (Source)
New year’s greeting
It's a miracle we're alive! Because someone
wanted us to be gone. It is a miracle that we are starting the New Year.
Because someone said that there will be no more New Year for Ukraine and its
people. The Lord
God is the giver of life, the lord of life and death, the Lord of times gives
us a New Year.
Today, we want to first of all thank the Lord
God for the fact that He performs the permanent miracle of the gift of life to
me and you, to our people and our state. In the face of death, He gave us
the opportunity to live and fight, work and pray, so that the new year would
be. The Lord God is the one who renews the face of the earth. By giving us
life, He also gives us a certain task, a certain mission — to gain something
new, to build and live the New Year.
We want to thank the Lord God for the fact that
every day of our lives is a small victory over a deadly enemy.
In the New Year, I want to wish you all God's
blessing, the strength that makes it possible to live from our faith, the
strength that makes us stable and unshakable! To wish that the war ends as
soon as possible, victory comes and a just peace reigns, so that everyone
who may be far from home returns to their homeland as soon as possible.
31/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
We ask God that the year 2023, which will come
in a few hours, will be the year of victory for our people and for Ukraine, - the
victory of good over evil, light over darkness, the courageous Ukrainian people
over the vile invader, - the people who know how to build their Motherland,
over the people who come only to steal
31/12/2022 (Source)
Message of condolences on the death of Pope
Benedict
At the beginning of the war, the Pope emeritus
sent me a letter in which he expressed his solidarity with the Ukrainian people
and assured me that he was praying for peace in our country. Amidst the horrors of war, we
always felt that in his great, but at the same time humble figure, in the
silence of the "Mater Ecclesiae" monastery in the Vatican, we have a
suppliant to God for long-suffering Ukraine.
(…)
During our conversation, Pope Benedict,
although he was physically weak, but with the light of his mind assured me: I
continue to pray for Ukraine. Now in his person our people have a deputy before
the throne of the Most High.
31/12/2022 (Source)
Words on Open Church television programme
We must be grateful to the Armed Forces of
Ukraine that we are alive, that we can move forward, that our state is standing
and fighting. We see that there is not a single family in Ukraine in which
someone did not fight. Therefore, the Ukrainian army is truly national. These are
the sons and daughters of our people who defend us and secure our future.
Therefore, on the one hand, we must thank them for being alive, and on the
other hand, we must live to support them.
Indeed, we can say that today all of Ukraine is
either at the front or for the front. We do not have the right to get used to
war or to live as if it does not exist. Because sometimes, when the front line
has moved away from our city, we are tempted to forget and build our lives as
if there is no war. This is very dangerous. We cannot put up with the war, but
we must do everything so that it ends with the victory of Ukraine.
We should be grateful to all those who help
Ukraine at various levels: our partners, believers all over the world, who are
now taking morsels of bread from their mouths to share with Ukraine. We have
them to thank for the fact that our hands are not empty when we bring help to
those in need.
We must thank our youth who stood up for the defense of the
Motherland. The case of protecting Ukraine has turned into a youth movement.
We should thank the doctors who treat and heal the wounds of
war.
We must thank the rescuers who continuously save human lives,
pulling out those who came under fire from under the rubble.
We have to thank the energy workers who
are repairing what the enemy is trying to destroy once again.
I want to thank the women of Ukraine. After all, the woman of Ukraine
today is a heroine, a protector of life, who took the burden of this war on her
shoulders, particularly in the rear, who raises children, sews clothes for the
front, prepares food for the hungry in order to feed millions. Unfortunately,
the face of a crying woman is an icon of our state today
29/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
According to the morning reports, the
Russians have set themselves the goal of reaching the administrative borders of
Donetsk region by the end of the year. But we see that the Lord God destroys
the wicked plans of those who consider themselves powerful in this world.
He protects the poor, the humble, is always on the side of those who cry and
are unjustly wronged.
(…)
In the midst of war, hatred, murder, maiming,
grief and tears, we Christians are called to share our faith in God's love for
us, because this is the only way we can defeat evil. This is the only way we can avoid
becoming like an aggressor who in his rage tries to destroy all living things.
Only believing in Divine love and being its bearers, we will be able to win in
this unequal battle, we will be able to protect life, protect the space of life
and love for ourselves and future generations.
27/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
And this morning we again
thank God and the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the fact that we are alive, that
we can continue to work for the good of our people in our peaceful
territory, that we can pray, bringing our victory closer day by day.
26/12/2022 (Source)
Christmas message to Pope Francis
I want to thank the Christians of the world for
turning off the light in order to be in solidarity with Ukrainians who suffer
from a lack of electricity. Thank you for limiting the heat in your churches
and homes to stand in solidarity with Ukrainians who suffer from the cold,
which the Russian aggressor uses as a weapon against Ukrainians. Thank you all
for your solidarity with Ukraine!
The enemy who came to our land wants to deprive
us of everything: life, the Motherland, even the Church. But he will not be
able to steal Christmas from Ukrainians! We want to tell ourselves and the whole world:
Christmas is a holiday that was not prepared by man, but by God! Despite our
weakness, our grief and our pain, Christ comes to be born among us. Heavenly
joy is coming to Ukraine!
Congratulating you, Holy Father, on this
holiday, we want to thank you for becoming the center of universal solidarity
with the long-suffering Ukrainian people. We were all moved by your tears in
the Spanish Square in Rome on the day of the Immaculate Conception, when you
could not speak for about 30 seconds, but were deeply moved and cried over the
grief of Ukraine.
We thank you for organizing countless types of aid that the Universal Catholic
Church provides to the long-suffering Ukrainian people.
Because of such concrete gestures of Christian
love, we feel that God is with us, we feel that we are not forgotten and not
abandoned in our trouble, that the Lord God is coming to be born today in Ukraine.
25/12/2022 (Source)
Christmas message to those who celebrate according
to the Gregorian calendar
Today, throughout Europe and the world, many
Christians are consuming less electricity in order to be in solidarity with us
Ukrainians who are suffering from a lack of electricity, reducing the heating
in their cathedrals and homes in order to be in solidarity with us in Ukraine
who are enduring the cold. Nowadays, the whole world wants to share its
Christmas joy with us. Therefore, we thank everyone who celebrates Christmas
today, thinking about Ukraine, as the Holy Father Francis calls for this.
To all those celebrating this great holiday
today, we send our heartfelt Christmas wishes, God's blessing and a happy,
peaceful coming year. We say to them from Ukraine: Christ is born! Let's praise
Him!
25/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Celebrating Christmas during war is not
easy. Many people ask whether it is possible to celebrate anything at all
now, whether it is possible to rejoice when the whole nation is
crying. But today God's word announces the good news: it is not man who
prepares Christmas, but God, the Heavenly Father! Don't be afraid to
accept the invitation! Don't be afraid to rejoice! Celebrate not only
as called, but also as chosen! Do not be afraid to become a participant in the heavenly banquet
of the Kingdom, which our Lord and Savior will open for you on Christmas
night. Amen.
25/12/2022 (Source)
Words during Christmas Eve Mass according to
Gregorian Calendar
On the eve of Christmas, there were so many
discussions in society about whether it is appropriate to celebrate Christmas,
or whether it is possible to rejoice in a time of war? Moreover, the
discussions surrounding the church calendar have led to the fact that instead
of Christmas, many today celebrate Christmas, Christmas without God, perhaps
responding to some commercial needs or under the slogan "Get away from
Moscow".
There is no Christmas without God! We invite
everyone to a real Christmas. It is the new-born Savior who is the content and
meaning of Christmas joy.
(…)
Only that warrior can defeat the enemy who
knows how to kneel before God. He is given the power of good and light, which
drives away the darkness of sin and death.
(…)
Let the secret of our resilience, our Savior
who is among us today, be the source of our vitality in the new year. May the
new year bring us victory and peace, because we know that Christ, who is the
light, the way, the truth and the life, is also our peace. Merry Christmas,
merry Christmas, heavenly blessing to you, your families, all of our
indomitable Ukraine.
24/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
There is destruction and new victims, killed
and wounded. Kherson is turning into a city of indomitability and courage,
where the enemy continues to sow death, and Ukrainians affirm life every day,
repairing broken infrastructure networks, bringing joy where the enemy wants to
make us cry. All volunteers, state and public organizations are now rushing
to Kherson and the Kherson region to warm the people there, to bring life there
24/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
This exarchate is the most wounded by the war
today. As an assistant to the Apostolic Nuncio, you went to the
occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk and saw what the Russian invader
was doing to people. He not only deprives her of what she has, but also
takes away from her what she is, takes away human dignity. Recently,
when we visited our Donetsk Exarchate, one of our priests from Mariupol told me
the following phrase: "These occupiers do not so much take people's lives
as steal their dignity. I saw how people cut each other for a packet of
vermicelli, how they fought for a bottle of clean water”. Bishop Maximus,
the Holy Spirit anoints you to carry the word of the Gospel of Christ to where
there is the greatest pain and darkness, to pour healing balm on the
wounds of suffering people, consecrating them. Give them hope! It is
you that the Lord God sends to announce, to deliver the release to the
prisoners. After all, your exarchate includes two of our courageous
priests - Ivan and Bohdan, who are prisoners of the Russian
occupiers. Bring them and other captives, and with them all the faithful
in the occupied territories, the glad tidings of liberation. The Lord
God is sending you today to set the oppressed free. Today, this war
oppresses, torments, bleeds us all. But Christ places you as a beacon of
hope for our Church and Ukraine.
23/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Even children who save their wounded parents
under shelling behave and think like adults. One gets the feeling that the war
steals childhood from children, and youth from young people.
20/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
Victory can be seen in the eyes of soldiers,
wounded and released from Russian captivity. It can also be seen in the eyes of
the elders in the destroyed villages of Kherson region and Kharkiv region,
where they live without light, without heat in the midst of the Ukrainian
winter. Victory looks at us through the eyes of war victims who say: "The
Ukrainian people are already winning, the enemy has already lost."
19/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
It is a privilege for me to arrive today in
Kryvyi Rih, in the city that was probably the most affected by the Russian
rocket attacks the day before yesterday, in which people were killed, in
particular, the dead body of a one and a half year old child was removed from
the rubble...
We ask today in this church: "Lord,
come to us! In the midst of the horrors of war, we cry to You: where are You?
Come and untie the knots that the Russian invader is tying over us. Speak that
word to us so that we stand up and straighten up. Give us the strength to win,
which the apostle Paul tells us about today: "You must put on the full
armor of God, so that in the hour of trouble you can resist and, conquering
everything, stand firm. Stand, therefore, having your loins girded with truth,
having put on the armor of justice" (Eph. 6, 13-14), because, as the
apostle warns us, we fight "against the principalities, against the
authorities, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits
of malice in the heavenly spaces" (Eph. 6, 12), so we must put on all the
power that flows from this throne of God. Lord, arise, strengthen us, because
we know that You love us. Save, God your people and bless your inheritance.
Amen.
18/12/2022 (Source)
During visit to Kryvyi Rih
Everyone who at least once in his life
experienced shelling, heard the sound of Russian explosions and rockets,
forever received a certain wound in his soul, which will always make itself
known. And what can we say about our women who lost their husbands and children
in the war?! Can someone heal these wounds? It is humanly impossible. But it is
on these wounds that the Lord God wants to pour healing balm with the power and
action of the Holy Spirit.
18/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
We heard the sound of sirens all over the territory
of Ukraine... The enemy continues to destroy the cities and villages that
were recently liberated, in particular in the Kherson region. People are dying
again. However, this Sunday we once again announce to the whole world: Ukraine
stands! Ukraine is fighting! Ukraine is praying! We continue to pray for
our soldiers, especially for the defenders of Bakhmut and Avdiivka,
18/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video address
God, help our youth to preserve the freedom you
have given us. Help us all to understand that in order to defend the freedom of
our Motherland, we ourselves must be free people.
(…)
The entire northern border region: Chernihiv
region, Sumy region, and Kharkiv region - suffers from dozens of Russian
shelling every day, which Russia carries out from its territory on our land... Bakhmut
is already being called the Stalingrad of the third millennium.
15/12/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
In times of war, we Christians have learned to
live in a deeper way because we don't know when our souls will be taken from
us, maybe tonight.
They learned to live without grave sin, in God's grace, to confess often and to
receive Holy Communion every day, that is, to be ready to stand before God with
a heart full of goodness, love for God and neighbor, for their Motherland. We
sometimes define that good with the word "patriotism" as love for
one's people and native land. To be rich in God during the war in Ukraine — let
it be our Christian wisdom and strength.
Let's live this day, week, month with dignity -
and then we will see that a mad and unworthy invader cannot stand before a worthy
and wise Ukrainian.
11/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
In his recent letter to the Ukrainian people,
the Holy Father Francis separately addressed the Ukrainian youth. He painfully
stated that today Ukrainian youth are forced to take up arms to defend the
Motherland, abandoning their dreams of the future. However, young people should
not stop dreaming.
Let's support our youth! Today, the special vocation of the Church is to
accompany young people in these difficult, terrible, dramatic circumstances of
the war in Ukraine.
(…)
The enemy continues to try to deport Ukrainian
children en masse. Moreover, the Russians released a commercial about children
deported from Ukraine, in which they encourage Russians to adopt Ukrainian
children who were taken from their parents. The Russians themselves claim
that they took more than 150,000 Ukrainian children out of Ukraine. But the
biggest barbarism is that the Chechens create military camps for Ukrainian
children from the Donbas in order to instill in them hatred of their Motherland
in the most aggressive way. Weapons are placed in children's hands... Let
us wrap our prayers around the children who today fell into the hands of the
enemy, from whom the Motherland, language, culture, love for everything native
are stolen.
09/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We will need the world to condemn these crimes
at the international level. If they are not condemned, unfortunately, they will
repeat themselves, as happened with Hitlerism or Stalinism. Hitler's crimes
were condemned at the Nuremberg Trials, but communism was not. Therefore, the
communist ideology, changing like a hydra, under the guise of modern Russian
ideology, continues to kill. We must do everything to stop this chain of
blind violence, this sacrilegious war against man that is happening in Ukraine
today.
Yesterday, the United Nations report on mass
executions of civilians in Ukraine was published. It is simply amazing. We read
that only in the three occupied regions of Ukraine during the first six
weeks of the Russian occupation, the murder of 441 civilians was proven, of
which 341 were men, 72 were women, 20 were boys, and 8 were girls. We
understand that those figures are a drop in the sea of Ukrainian grief and
pain and a drop in the sea of crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine.
However, it is very important to collect and record those crimes bit by bit, so
that later they can be officially condemned in an international tribunal,
because otherwise it will be impossible to achieve peace in Ukraine. If the
murderers are not named and the victims are not honored, it will be impossible
to talk about the process of reconciliation between nations.
08/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
God, bless our soldiers at the front! God, send
Your arch-strategist Michael with the heavenly army, so that evil is once again
defeated on the battlefield! God, grant victory to Ukraine! God, grant Ukraine
Your just, heavenly peace!
(…)
Let us pray for those of our children who ended
up in the occupied territories. We know that the occupiers are systematically destroying the Ukrainian
education system in the occupied territories, threatening to deprive those
who refuse to send their children to hastily created Russian schools of
parental rights. May the Lord God help us to preserve the dignity of the
child and raise the dignity of a person in the network of our school,
particularly the Catholic, education system.
06/12/2022 (Source)
Pastoral letter from the UGCC on Patriotism
In this terrible hour of military calamity and
extremely difficult trials, we want to address you, dear compatriots, with a
pastoral word about patriotism as love for one's people and the Motherland. Its
purpose is to inspire our heroes-defenders with the word of God's truth; to
comfort all those who have lost their loved ones with a word of sympathy; to
support with a word of love those who suffered from the criminal war waged by
the Russian aggressor against our state; finally, to speak a word of hope to
our compatriots.
We call on believers to become "salt of
the earth" (Mt. 5:13) and "leaven" (1 Cor. 5:6) to strengthen,
unify and renew our Motherland. We appeal equally to all Ukrainians, because
we believe that, regardless of religious and confessional affiliation, everyone
should strive for moral values to serve the improvement of the entire
society. We direct our word to people of other national origin who live in
our common Motherland and love it as their own, having found here the land with
which they connect their present and future and the future of their
descendants. Our message is based on God's commandments and the example of
Jesus Christ,
The destructive actions and war crimes
committed by the aggressor cause a flurry of emotions in each of us, including
restlessness and anxiety, pain and sorrow. We, the bishops of the UGCC, share
the feelings of our suffering people. The rules of the Christian experience
of defensive war, which our people are now fighting, include the rules of just
self-defense. Ukrainians have a sacred duty to defend their Motherland, even
taking up arms. Therefore, we wrap our prayers in support of our soldiers
who went to the front to protect their native land, their families, the lives
and future of their children and grandchildren.
At the same time, we call on our compatriots
not only for an emotional reaction. Our feelings even now, during the war,
should serve as an impetus for deeper reflection, which should not be postponed
until victory. On the contrary, right now, despite the destruction and
suffering, is the time not only to act and feel, but also to think, to think in
the light of faith. Therefore, in this message, we invite you to think together
with us about the meaning of existence and historical tasks of our people,
about the Motherland as our common value and sanctuary, about our attitude
towards friends and enemies of our country, about the development of the future
Ukraine, which should become even better after the victory over the enemy
Patriotism, which we offer to think about from
a Christian perspective, is one of the manifestations of the main commandment -
to love your neighbor as yourself. Derived from the Latin "pater", that is, "father",
the word "patriotism" should help us realize that our earthly
Motherland is given to us by God the Father. We turn to our heavenly Father
with the words of the prayer "Our Father". Ukraine is our
Motherland, that is, the earthly inheritance of the Father who is in heaven. It
is our earthly "home", in which we are residents, and among ourselves
we are relatives (people), because we are children of the same Father.
Therefore, the roots of earthly patriotism are in heaven. Giving the
Motherland to us as a gift, the Lord calls us to be responsible for it, and the
responsibility is to enter into the Father's plan for Ukraine and transform our
land according to His commandments.
(…)
The Church of Christ, formed from different
peoples, preserved love for the earthly Motherland as a duty. Christians,
loving their parents, are called to love their land, "the land of their
fathers." However, unlike the people of the Old Testament, who
associated themselves only with the land that God gave to their forefathers,
Christians seek first of all the high Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 4, 26), and call
themselves citizens of heaven (cf. Phil. 3, 20 ; Hebrews 13, 14). The
words of the apostle: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus" (Gal. 3, 28) do not diminish the richness of different cultures and
national characteristics of the embodiment of Christ in their history Gospel. Yes, the holy apostle Paul,
following the Teacher, opens a vertical dimension to us, because all of us, the
peoples of this earth, stand together before the face of God. Christ's
mission is to unite all people in one people of God. This does not mean
that Christians should neglect their earthly Motherland, because the Apostle
Paul, whom St. John Paul II called "a teacher of love for the
Motherland", writes in the Epistle to the Romans: "I speak the truth
in Christ, I do not deceive, as my conscience testifies to me in the Holy
Spirit [...] I myself would like to be separated from Christ for my brothers,
my relatives in the flesh" (Rom. 9, 1-3). Other words of the apostle
are also important: "If someone does not care for his own, and especially
for his family, he has fallen away from the faith: he is worse than an
infidel" (cf. 1 Tim. 5, 8). as my conscience testifies to me in the
Holy Spirit [...] I would like to be separated from Christ myself for my
brothers, my relatives in the flesh" (Rom. 9, 1-3). Other words of
the apostle are also important: "If someone does not care for his own, and
especially for his family, he has fallen away from the faith: he is worse than
an infidel" (cf. 1 Tim. 5, 8).
(…)
The absence of direct calls to love one's
earthly Motherland among early Christian authors can be explained by the fact
that in the society of that time, Christians were a persecuted minority, and
the state system was permeated with a pagan religious worldview, unacceptable
to Christians.
Therefore, the position of the martyrs, who chose the death of the body rather
than sin, remains exemplary for subsequent Christian generations; life in the
Kingdom of Heaven than living in the state of "this world", which
grossly violates God's commandments and natural law.
(…)
The Christian faith is the source of thousands
of years of Ukrainian state building experience. And when the state was declining in difficult
moments of our history, it was our Church that bore the image of the lost
"home" and provided spiritual impulses for its restoration. In this
way, the Kyivan tradition nurtured by our Church served to preserve and develop
not only the church, but also the national identity of the local people of God.
Over the centuries, Ukrainians preserved their spiritual and cultural
identity, perceiving Christianity not only as a personal matter of a person,
but also as a patriotic idea of the Rus-Ukraine community.
The church-national identity of Ukrainians was
not always understood by other peoples, because they had their own history with
a different relationship between the services of the Church and the state.
For some, the role of the Kyiv Church in state construction seemed
comparatively insufficient, for others - excessive. Hence the objections
regarding the "apoliticalness" (insufficiency) or, conversely, the
"nationalism" (excessiveness) of our Church in the social life of the
Ukrainian people.
(…)
Metropolitan Andrey distinguished two types of
patriotism – pagan and Christian, and defined hatred as the point of
distinction. Pagan patriotism contained hatred as a necessary element of
opposition to foreigners: "Pagan patriotism is love for one's own, combined with hatred
for all others. And Christian love for the Motherland, embracing all people,
unites Christians with opponents and enemies and gives patriotism the basis
it needs: it teaches that unity" (Decree "On Unity" and rules
for the decree, September 28, 1943). Christian patriotism has a basic red line
outlined by Jesus himself: "I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you" (Mt. 5, 44). The basis of Christian patriotism is
a special love for one's people, which does not contradict the Christian duty
to love all people.
(…)
“A Christian can and should be a patriot,
but his patriotism cannot be hatred, nor dare he impose duties contrary to
faith. What would appear to be patriotism, but [in reality] would be hatred or
contrary to faith, is not true patriotism.”
(…)
In the modern teaching of the Church, the
Second Vatican Council speaks several times about patriotism. In the Decree on
the missionary activity of the Church "Ad gentes" it is stated: (…) As
good citizens, let them nurture a real active love for the Motherland; completely
avoiding contempt for other peoples and extreme nationalism, let them cultivate
universal love between people" (p. 15). So the Council fully supports
patriotism, while opposing chauvinism or extreme nationalism.
(…)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church on
patriotism teaches as follows: "It is the duty of citizens to cooperate
with civil authorities for the good of society in the spirit of truth, justice,
solidarity and freedom." Love for the Motherland, service to it arise from
the duty of gratitude and from the order of love".
(…)
Unfortunately, not everyone adequately
perceives the desire of Ukrainians to build a "native home" - their
earthly Motherland. This became most evident when the northern neighbor,
denying the very right of the Ukrainian people to exist, launched a bloody war
against it, causing terrible destruction and numerous human
casualties. Even in the so-called to the free world, not everyone
understands the Ukrainian defensive struggle, the defense of its own identity,
accusing our people and our Church of excessive nationalism. This once again emphasizes how
important it is not only for Ukrainians, but also for all other nations to
understand the meaning of true Christian patriotism.
(…)
True patriotism will never be seasoned with
antagonism or hatred, even towards enemies. Christian patriotism must be
distinguished from a distorted attitude towards the Motherland, which is not
love, but rather national egoism, which can imperceptibly develop into open
chauvinism. Because
a chauvinist or a Nazi also says that he stands for his country, but he wants
to achieve the greatness of his state by humiliating or even destroying others.
Instead, a Christian understands that it is not hatred of others and opposition
to them that makes us able to fulfill our Christian task of protecting the
Motherland, but rather the ability to give ourselves in love.
(…)
Love creates heroes, and hate creates
criminals. A patriot is someone who first of all identifies with his people and
takes responsibility for his country.
(…)
Therefore, a patriot should be especially
careful not to introduce ungodly principles into the state system, such as
uncertain and unverified concepts of human identity or family and principles of
gender education, which are no less threatening to the nation than military
aggression.
(…)
Let the Ukrainian struggle today give evidence
of true freedom not only for Ukraine, but also for the whole world. And true
freedom, as the experience of Ukraine shows today, is the ability to do good.
And let this spiritual truth be our strength that enables us to win.
05/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
In times of war, we see a mutual rapprochement
through Christian love and charity carried out through social service and
various humanitarian initiatives. They bring together and unite the East, West,
South and North of Ukraine, unite our people in their native lands and in
settlements in different parts of the world. This unity is the key not only to
the treatment of modern wounds, but also the guarantee of our victory, the
victory of Ukraine. Evil and death will never have the last word. Only Divine
love, which heals and saves, is eternal.
04/12/2022 (Source)
Words to Fr who was arrested by Russian troops
and then liberated and expelled from Melitopol
Today in the Gospel we heard about the hand of
the Good Samaritan, the hand of the priest who administers the Holy Sacraments.
And here is the hand that brought God's grace to our brothers and sisters in
Melitopol and its surroundings, the hand that was shackled and taken away from
the parish by force! Allow me to make one gesture - to kiss the hand that
poured and will pour God's grace on the wounds of our people.
I asked him several times: "Father, can we
save you?". And he said with tears in his eyes: “No, there are so many
people here who ask for Confession, Holy Communion, get married, and are
baptized. Who will serve them if I am not here?!" He was under special pressure
during the pseudo-referendum. Seven times they came to him to accept a Russian
passport!
Our two priests in Berdyansk - Father Ivan
Levitskyi and Father Bohdan Geleta - are imprisoned. We know that they are
tortured mercilessly, confessions are extracted from them in crimes they did
not commit.
May the Lord bless all our priests. May he save
our fathers Ivan and Bohdan and again give them to the Church for service.
04/12/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
The enemy continues to commit various crimes in
the occupied territories, but what surprises us all the most is widespread
looting. No matter how difficult it was for our people, we never ransacked
shops or destroyed warehouses with food. Instead, those who supposedly have power in
these territories engage in looting. In Novaya Kakhovka, Russians broke into
shops and began to steal even freezers and cash registers. But Ukraine stands!
Ukraine is fighting! Ukraine is praying!
Unfortunately, the enemy is intensifying
repression and humiliation of the civilian population in the occupied
territories. Numerous searches, arrests, torture are carried out, people
disappear, about whom there is no news. Our heroic priests from Berdyansk —
Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Geleta — are still in captivity and are humiliated
and tortured every day.
04/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from television interview
During the audience, I asked Pope Francis:
"Do you know what they say about you in Ukraine?". He asked:
"What?". I answer: "That you didn't read Dostoevsky well."
"But why?" – he was surprised...
(…)
And I told the Pope that it reminded me of
certain romantic ideas about Germany before the Second World War: when someone
heard the word "Germany", they imagined the German philosophy of the
19th century, high examples of German culture... But in power were nazis And
then the whole world wondered how such a people, with such a high culture,
created Auschwitz and was the cause of the great Holocaust.
The same thing, unfortunately, is happening in
Russia. Criminals, Nazis, are in power there. And the whole world today is
watching the crimes against the Ukrainian people, their genocide. We see these
mass burials. And the Pope simply could not believe that such alleged examples
of humanism could commit such a crime.
Today, our people are like a sick child who
sees the world in shades of black and white. And they believe that when someone
is not with us, he is against us, if someone speaks positively about those who
kill us, it causes offence.
Our people do not understand this. That's what
I told the Pope. And he asked what he could do as a gesture, a word of comfort,
empathy. I said: Holy Father, write a letter to the Ukrainians. And he did.
02/12/2022 (Source)
Appeal for the release of Fr. Ivan Levitskyi
and Fr. Bohdan Geletu
These two priests decided to stay with their
people in the temporarily occupied territories. They served both the Greek
Catholic and Roman Catholic communities, bringing a light of hope to people
under occupation. They were arrested, then some military items were thrown into
the temple, and they begin to accuse these fathers of illegal possession of
weapons. Yesterday there was a report that they were being mercilessly tortured.
In accordance with the classic Stalinist repressive methods, confessions of a
crime they did not commit are simply beaten out. They are in danger of death
every day.
I ask everyone, first of all those who beat and
torture, to release them immediately. This is not the fault of Christ's
priests. They were guilty only because they love their people, the Church, the
people entrusted to them.
Lord, we entrust Fathers Ivan and Bohdan into
Your hands! Give us all the light of understanding, how we can help them,
how to save them. And where it is impossible for a person to do something,
Lord, be present! God, may their lives, testimonies, and sufferings be the
newest treasure of our Church and people.
01/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
How many wounds our people have today! How
deeply we carry the pain of despair in our hearts today! So many times we
experienced the feeling that everyone left us and forgot about us! It seemed to
us that the whole world was just watching how many days it would take the enemy
to conquer Ukraine. It is already the ninth month, and we are standing. Now the
whole world is asking where we get our strength and resilience from.
Today we can say to ourselves and to the whole
world that the stability of Ukraine, our strength and victory and our peace,
for which we are fighting for our Motherland, has a name - the Lord our God
Jesus Christ. It is
He who tells us today: "Don't be afraid, just believe!". Because we,
as people, are afraid. Anyone who says they are not afraid during war is
telling a lie. When rockets fly, bombs fall, our houses shake and windows fly
out, everyone gets scared.
How to live in such circumstances? One woman,
whose husband was killed, asked me: how to continue living? That is why
Christ's words addressed to us sound so strongly today: "Do not be afraid,
only believe!". The Lord wants to touch us, he is looking for those who
would believe in Him and to whom His power could be transferred.
Now He touches us through the body of His
Church. This touch of the fullness of the Universal Church is mentioned by the
Holy Father Francis in his recent letter to the Ukrainian people: "In
these months, when the harsh climate makes what you are going through today even
more tragic, I want you to feel the gentle touch of the Church on your faces ,
the power of prayer and the love with which numerous brothers and sisters
around the world surround you." Even now, in this Divine Liturgy, Christ
is looking for those whom he would touch with his Body and Blood. He calls us
to Holy Communion, His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins and eternal
life. He is looking for open, believing hearts that can receive His healing
power because He wants to heal our inner, not only bodily, but also spiritual
bleeding, which is our sin. Because sin is the bleeding of the soul. Sometimes
a person who is bleeding may not feel much pain, but she dies. Christ wants to
touch both our soul and our body to stop our internal bleeding and restore the
fullness, integrity of our life.
(…)
We ask the Lord God to touch each of us: me and
you. We ask Him for peace for our Motherland, for victory over the Russian
aggressor, for victory over sin and death, which the enemy brings to Ukrainian
land. Because Christ is our peace, healing, life and resurrection.
(…)
Today we say: God, save Ukraine, save our boys
and girls at the front! With your strength, heal the wounds of Ukraine, touch
the suffering, sick hearts. Pour out your power on them as You did in today's
Gospel regarding the bleeding woman and the dead girl. God, bless our Ukraine
with Your true, just, heavenly peace! Amen.
27/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from speech on Holodomor remembrance
day
Unfortunately, in history it happened that
when we lost our statehood, the northern aggressor exterminated our people. The
same is happening today. The enemy tells us to surrender our country. However,
we understand that by losing our statehood, we again become victims of
genocide. It was not for nothing that Pope Francis found a deep internal
connection between those two tragedies – the 90-year-old Genocide-Holodomor and
the genocide that Russia is wreaking on the land of Ukraine today. Then
Stalin's killers turned hunger into the cheapest and cruellest weapon of mass
destruction, and today their descendants want to turn cold into such a weapon
against Ukraine again.
(…)
We pray today to protect our people from a new
deadly threat, which is now being openly carried by Russia with the intention
of taking away the Ukrainian people's right to exist, we remember to prevent.
We should unite and do everything in our power,
so that such crimes never happen again on Ukrainian soil. We remember to prevent! Eternal
memory to all those who were deprived of their right to life and existence, who
became victims of the great famine in Ukraine!
26/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
It is sometimes not easy for internally
displaced persons and refugees to integrate in a new place - foreign people,
circumstances, customs, maybe even languages. Therefore, I am asking everyone:
let's accept our brothers and sisters, especially children, as relatives. Let's
not pay attention to the language of communication - let's help integrate
social life in them. I thank all our communities and parishes abroad, which
welcome brothers and sisters from the East of Ukraine and give them the
opportunity to feel that they are full-fledged members.
25/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
However, what strikes us the most is the
brutality of the Russian occupiers towards their own people. We are already
used to seeing terrible footage of mass burials, torture chambers, abuse of the
peaceful Ukrainian population in the liberated territories. However, residents
of Kherson said that the Russians burned the bodies of their dead soldiers in
the city cemetery. And they called it a secret special operation. However,
they failed to hide this crime against the dignity of their own soldiers
22/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
In the conditions of the current war, we see
the evil that, due to the crimes of the Russian invaders, materializes in this
visible world. From a person's evil decision, from abusing the opportunity
to choose between good and evil, from abusing freedom, a person joins that
spiritual struggle, enters the vortex of evil and, as it were, lets it into this
world. But at the same time, a person is invited to be a winner. The
final victory over evil is given to us in Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who
defeated death by death, destroyed the devil and his army. In Him, we also
see the final victory over evil at the end of history, as we read about in the
book of Revelation.
So, this holiday has an open invitation for
each of us. We are participants in this confrontation, so we cannot help
but act, fight, decide on which side we stand. The Church invites us to
stand on the side of the arch-strategist Michael, so that his victory, which
was completed in the sacrament of the incarnation of Christ, becomes a reality
in our personal life, in the life of a person, human community, human culture
and in the life of this visible world. The whole world groans with
inexpressible groans, says the apostle Paul, waiting for the liberation of the
sons of God, for the final victory of good.
Today, on the holiday of Kyiv's patron saint,
arch-strategist Michael, all our thoughts are directed towards the
capital. We feel that from the beginning of the war, when there was an
attack on Kyiv, arch-strategist Michael with all the heavenly army fought
against evil over this city. At the beginning of the war, there were many
testimonies of people of different denominations and religions about the
presence of an angelic host. At that time, when explosions rang out around
the capital, fighting was going on in Gostomel, Irpen, the heavenly army fought
on the side of the Ukrainian army. In those most dramatic moments of the
history of our capital, we felt all the disgust and destructive power of evil,
as well as the beauty and invincible power of good! And we become
partakers of that victory that took place in heaven and is carried out on earth
through the right choice in favor of the good of people, the Ukrainian army,
Ukraine, which is today resisting Russian aggression.
We are also currently celebrating a state
holiday – the Day of Dignity and Freedom. We commemorate the Heroes of the
Heavenly Hundred, all those who gave their lives on the Maidan, saying
"no" to evil, violence, untruth and corruption, opening a new page in
the history of the national liberation struggles of the Ukrainian people. Praying
today with our Heroes, who in the heavens today form a single army with arch-strategist
Michael and his disembodied forces in this Cathedral, we ask for the power of
goodness, help, and prayers for the victory of Ukraine in this war, which has
come to our home today. Let the final word of goodness be revealed in
our victory. Let the victory of Ukraine be the victory of good over evil
of arch-strategist Michael and his heavenly forces over the devil and his
servants. May we see this strange vision of how Satan, who was created as
a day-star, a star, will fall once more from his pedestal of human
history, so that we can experience this vision together: "I saw Satan
falling like lightning from heaven" (Lk. 10, 18). Amen.
21/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
We know that the word "freedom" has
many meanings.
Sometimes in the modern world it undergoes such a mutation that it loses its
original, true meaning. Everything is done in the name of "freedom". Even
the Russian occupier comes to "liberate" someone on Ukrainian soil.
(…)
Today, we ask the Lord God through the prayers
of St. Josaphat for true freedom for our people. We ask for that
freedom from new enslavement. Because we see that this invader and
murderer who comes to our home is a new colonizer. We are telling the
whole world that now, at the beginning of the third millennium, a war of
colonization is going on in Ukraine, which lies in the center of Europe. This
is difficult for many people in the world to understand. The colonizer
wants to take everything from us. However, what makes Ukraine today the
epicenter of world events is precisely the fact that we tasted freedom, that we
said "no" to the legion that is attacking us, because we want to be
disciples of Jesus. Today, Ukraine is becoming the heart of the
struggle for freedom throughout the world.
Lord, let us return home, just like this man
whom You set free. Millions of Ukrainians are waiting for this
moment. We want to go home and then tell everyone about what God has done
with us or for us. We want to tell the whole world about free,
independent Ukraine, which lives in the freedom that the Lord God gives and
guarantees to us, in the freedom of God's sons. Amen.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We were particularly worried by our President's
statement that Russia deported more than 11,000 Ukrainian children from
Ukraine. And these are only the ones we know about. And those we do not
know about, unfortunately, are not included in the statistics. Therefore,
today we are asking all international institutions: let's do everything
together so that the children of Ukraine return to their Motherland, to their
parents, to their homes!
(…)
The war brought ruin to our Ukraine and to the
soul, psyche and physiological sphere of all Ukrainians. However, there are those among us
who have lost more than we have. When it's hard for us, let's remember that
there are those who endure more. When we are in pain, let us understand that
someone is suffering much more. Therefore, let's be attentive to those who need
help
15/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview with Avennire
The Pope asks to start negotiations, calling
Putin and Zelenskyi by name.
He made this
address after the Sunday prayer "Angel of the Lord", condemning
Russia's annexation of four regions of Ukraine, referring to international law,
which guarantees the inviolability of the borders of a sovereign state. Those
are really brave words. I consider his address historic and am convinced
that it will mark the history of Central-Eastern Europe, as well as the history
of the entire Catholic Church before the outbreak of this war.
Why?
The appeal to
the two presidents is striking in its asymmetry. The Holy Father
appeals to Putin to stop the aggression. We are talking about something
special, because the Russian side is in the grip of its own logic of war. And
addressing Zelenskyi, he asks him to accept "serious proposals for
peace." This saying reveals the deep wisdom of the Pope, which not
everyone has yet fully understood.
What are the conditions for
negotiations?
After the
invasion of Georgia, Russia changed the very concept of "peace
proposal." For the Kremlin, peace means the pacification of the
colony it conquered. This is the peace that needs to be planted -
"peace coercion". Basically, it's about giving up. However,
this model is unacceptable for us, therefore "not serious", according
to the Pope's statement. I can assure you that all of Ukraine seeks peace. Our
president declared peace with Russia as one of the most important points of his
election program. We, as the Church, teach how to build peace. But
first of all, we need to recognize Ukraine's right to exist, a right that Putin
denied us very recently. After that, it is necessary to guarantee
subjectivity — and this is only a prerequisite for dialogue. And if a
serious offer of peace really comes, the Ukrainian people will accept it with
great joy. So we pray that it will happen as soon as possible.
Can the Holy See be a mediator?
No doubt. This
is what the Pope himself says in the letter he sent me: "I assure you that the Holy
See, at different levels and in different areas, continues to make efforts to
stop the conflict and to prevail over all actions for a peaceful path." Pope
Francis tells us that Vatican diplomacy is at our service. Ever since the
beginning of the war in Donbas and the annexation of Crimea, the Holy See has
always shown readiness to mediate. Our President Zelensky even suggested
that the Vatican city-state could be the geographic location of the meeting. However,
certain prerequisites are necessary. First, both parties must agree to
mediation. Second, they must commit to abide by and ratify what they
agreed upon. Thirdly, it is necessary to hear the arguments of both sides.
Is the intervention of other great
powers necessary?
I am not a
politician, but every contact and channel that can contribute to saving human
lives is very necessary. History shows that pandering to the aggressor
is always harmful. In any case, if there is someone who can remind the
Russian authorities, we sincerely ask you to do so.
Are you afraid of nuclear
escalation?
This whole war
is a constant escalation. And now, after Russia's latest defeats on the
battlefield, we constantly hear nuclear threats. However, people have
already crossed the psychological threshold of fear. This is also not
good, because the danger has not passed. Many people say: our houses are
destroyed, missiles and kamikaze drones shoot at us - what difference does it
make to die from another missile or an atomic bomb?! This indicates that
we, Ukrainians, have no other choice but to fight for survival. However,
no one loses hope. People understand that giving up means making
things worse.
What do the priests in the occupied
territories say?
The
intention of the occupiers is to depopulate Ukrainian territories. We do
not understand the motives. They say that they have come to protect the
population — but why is it necessary to destroy everything? We also see
the systematic deportation of the population. Ethnic cleansing is being
carried out in Kherson, people were given two days to leave the city. And
this is the policy of the state that just annexed the territories? The task of the Church is to protect
the most disadvantaged and, if necessary, to be their voice. That is why
we consider it our duty to tell about all this.
Is this Putin's war or the Russian
people's?
Russia is
not a democratic country. No one there is interested in what the people
think, overwhelmed by propaganda about the supremacy of the Russian nation. Of
course, Russian society suffered a lot from this propaganda, but it also
adapted it. If it is true that 65 percent of the population supports the
war, then we are sorry. When we see the tears of Russian mothers mourning
the death of their own children, believe me, we are not happy. When we see
their huge losses at the front or when we see those fleeing from forced
mobilization in order not to go to kill, we realize that this people is also
suffering. The Russian government behaves irresponsibly and cruelly
towards its own people. And I sincerely hope that a sense of peace will
prevail in Russian society. If it is obvious that starting this war was a
big mistake, you have to have the courage to admit it. And we, the victims
of this war, pray for our enemies,
Russian Patriarch Kirill blessed the
invasion. Is the war in Ukraine dividing Christians?
It is in
everyone's eyes. Christians are divided even in their assessment of the
war. But no one will justify the attack, except for the Russian
Orthodox Church in Russia. Even the same church outside of Russia has a
different position. The way in which the Russian Orthodox Church supports
the war reminds us of the doctrine of ISIS. The Islamic State used Islam to
legitimize the most brutal violence - we see the same in the preaching of the
Moscow patriarch and the highest representatives of this church. Like
ISIS, the Russian Orthodox Church views the Western world as immoral and
deserving of destruction. The doctrine of the Islamic State calls for
self-sacrifice for the sake of fighting the West, promising eternal life - we
hear the same in the sermons of Patriarch Kirill. However, the Islamic
world has managed to develop antibodies to reject and defend against this
provocative ideology. And also we Christians must distance themselves
from this apparent instrumentalization of the Gospel. Otherwise, we will
face not only the threat of the division of the Christian world, but also a
crisis of confidence in Christianity as such.
They predict a
hard winter. Do you need the proximity of the West?
Ukraine needs
solidarity at various levels. First of all, we ask the world to condemn
attacks on civilians. The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious
Organizations, which unites Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims,
recently made a statement on the protection of the Ukrainian sky. It
may seem strange to some that Churches are asked to provide anti-missile
defense systems, but we do this not to kill people, but to save them. We
also need help to restore the energy infrastructure. Not so long ago,
Ukraine was an energy exporter for Europe, and now we need Europe's support in
this important area.
Peace will not come only from the
signing of a certain agreement. Will it be necessary to cleanse hearts?
In our Church,
we adopted the Pastoral Plan until 2030. An important part of it is wound
healing. We realize that war not only inflicts physical wounds, but
also creates feelings of hatred and revenge. As Confucius said, if we
hate, we have already lost. And that's why it will take time for peace to
come not only on paper, but also in hearts, as God's word tells us. However,
when we manage to stop the hostility, it will be necessary to clearly indicate
who is the criminal, otherwise we cannot talk about justice. Therefore,
it is necessary to start a certain path, on the horizon of which there should
be objective truth. Many Russians do not realize what their army has
done on the territory of Ukraine. We will need time to pray together at
the graves of our victims.
Italy, in particular the Italian
Church, has always been close to the Ukrainian people...
I am grateful
to the Italian people for the help we receive, as well as for their hospitality
to refugees from Ukraine. In the first ranks of this help, we see dioceses
and parishes. I want to thank the Episcopal Conference of Italy, which
supports our Church every year. However, we especially feel this help now,
when bombs are falling on us. I will also note that although many of our
priests live on the verge of poverty, they perform sacrificial service to all
people.
14/11/2022 (Source)
Opening
of jubilee of St. Josaphat, in Rome
Those words about our Christ the Lord Jesus as a good
shepherd were reread again and again by each of our bishops, priests, abbots of
this or that monastery, when they saw the approaching Russian army. When
he had to make a difficult choice - what to do: stay here, in place, or leave
the occupied territory, that community, those people? And today I want us all to give
thanks together that our Church has good shepherds on the example of our Savior
Christ Jesus.
12/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Apparently, the past day will go down in the
history of Ukraine as the Day of Liberation of Ukrainian Kherson. Yesterday
we watched with emotion the video of how the residents of Kherson and Kherson
Oblast met the Ukrainian soldiers with flowers, with Ukrainian flags, and most
importantly, with tears of joy and with smiles that they are finally free.
Today, on behalf of all of our God's people, I thank the Armed Forces of
Ukraine for restoring the gift of freedom to Kherson and the entire
right-bank Mykolaiv region and Kherson region.
(…)
We feel a nationwide elation and say: God,
liberate other Ukrainian lands by the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit!
God, support the Ukrainian army in its victorious march!
(…)
Unfortunately, the war also causes an increase in
internal tension in Ukraine. People are becoming embittered, aggressive,
the number of conflicts within our communities is beginning to increase.
12/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of address to monastic superiors
When the war started, 500 people often spent
the night in the crypts of our Patriarchal Cathedral. Together with them - cats, dogs,
parrots, hamsters, fish. In this, I saw the Church as Noah's ark, which
saves those people in the midst of a turbulent world, in the midst of death
lurking outside. We saw how Russian helicopters circled over our cathedral,
how rockets flew into high-rise buildings in Kyiv before our eyes. Where did
the people go? To his Church. Because they knew that there they would be
received, hugged, warmed, fed and entertained.
We want to be a Church that doesn't just shut
itself up in its bomb shelters, but comes out like the Basilian Fathers came
out to serve the Divine Liturgy in the Kyiv subway. I want us to especially
remember the Fathers in the occupied territories, because now it is the most
difficult for them. I spoke personally to the Holy Father about their
fate: about the Basilian fathers in Kherson, in the Crimea, about the
Redemptorist fathers in Berdyansk, about the Fathers of the Incarnate Word in
Skadovsk – about our newest confessors of Christ's Gospel in extraordinary
circumstances.
He who survived confession in the Kyiv subway
under bombs will never forget the loving motherly face of his Church.
One of our priests in Zaporizhzhia was called a
priest who smells like bread by the Russian military. Because he carried
bread and smelled of it. For him, the smell of bread was a document that
opened all Russian roadblocks.
I am proud that we have such monasticism, which
is ready to serve its Church where it is most difficult, where there is the
greatest need. When we serve others, we solve many internal
problems. We are healing our wounds, overcoming difficulties.
08/11/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We see that Russia spends tens or even
hundreds of millions of dollars every day on the huge amount of weapons it uses
to attack Ukraine. If, for example, those funds were invested in the
development of medicine, in the development of people, even in Russia itself,
then it would be possible to do a lot of good and serve life, instead of
bringing death and destruction.
We are witnessing the fact, that Russia,
instead of treating the sins and vices of its people, wounded by decades of
communist terror, is trying to solve internal problems with external
aggression.
08/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon, during a trip to Rome
It is a miracle that I am among you. It's a
miracle we're alive. It is a miracle that our Motherland, which has been
crucified for the 256th day, is alive. From a human point of view, this is
impossible, because we should have been gone a long time ago. And then everyone
would be calm, satisfied, no one would have problems - neither political, nor
diplomatic, nor military. But the Lord God does not see such a world without
us. We, as a people, as the Church, have a special task from Him in front of
this world, which thinks about its own benefit, its own comfort - thinks only
about itself. We have a mission given to us by God.
(…)
The question, where is God, torments and burns
every Ukrainian who today is looking for meaning in the most insane reality -
in war. A little girl asked this question to her mother in Mariupol: Mom, where
is God when a bomb falls on us? Mother, where is God? This is the question that
everyone asks themselves when they see those who suffered from this war, those
from whom the enemy took away their relatives, those whose house burned down in
front of their eyes, and in that house - their entire previous life. Where is
God when you look at the mass burials of murdered young men, women and children
with their hands tied. You ask: God, where are you?
God answers us today in this parable: I am
where no one expected to see Me. I am among those who today they want to kill,
denying their right to exist. That is why we can say today: God is in the body
of the Ukrainian people, who, like that Lazarus, reaches out to the world,
sometimes asking for that little bit of humanitarian aid or other things. We
are the people to whom God himself gave the right to exist and live, and no one
can take this right away from us. God is wounded every time Russian rockets and
bombs fall on the heads of Kyivans, residents of Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv,
Mykolaiv, and Kherson. His wounds can be seen in our wounded soldiers. What
wounds - if only we could imagine!
Those who today close their hearts and minds to
us, thinking that they decide the destinies of the whole world, do not want to
give God even a crumb of their attention. Again and again our Lord Jesus
Christ is killed, shot, tortured, publicly executed in the body of our soldiers
and civilians in the occupied territories and in Russian captivity. And He dies
again in the body of Ukraine to be resurrected!
And when today we want to ask ourselves, what
is our strength, the strength of stability and invincibility of Ukraine, which
surprises the whole world - El-Azar - God is still present in his Lazarus
today! Moreover, it is the Lord who reveals to us, Ukrainians, the prospects of
our life and existence as God's people far beyond the earthly hell that the
occupier created for us on earth, and even beyond the limits of death itself.
Therefore, we are not afraid of death - Christ defeated it and rose from the
dead. He is in us, and even if the mind, will or heart of some politician or
head of state, philosopher or thinker does not accept and understand us today,
know that Abraham's bosom will accept us in the heavenly abode. We will be
embraced by the Heavenly Father as His beloved children. And those who today
do not want to see the hand of Ukraine, which, dripping with blood, knocks on
the hearts and minds of the world community, they will never receive the
desired finger of Lazarus, which would cool their tongue in the midst of
eternal hellish suffering and torment (cf. Lk. 16, 24). Only we, as God's
people, must be able to live it worthily.
Let's not be afraid and let's not get
discouraged when someone doesn't understand us today, when they don't understand why
Ukrainians don't give up, but fight. Let's not worry about the fact that
someone does not understand the meaning of our pain and suffering. One
victorious European politician of the 20th century said: "You must win
first, and then everyone will understand you."
Do not despair! Don't get tired! But every time
you get into difficult life circumstances, ask yourself: where is God? You will
see that He is much closer than you thought. And even when you carry the wounds
of Ukraine, our nation, on your body, you will be able to say with the apostle
Paul: "Let no one trouble me, because I carry the wounds of Jesus on my
body" (Gal. 6, 17).
Here in Italy, in this temple, you have a
privilege, and therefore a special task in this national, church-wide battle
against evil. Your privilege is not that Russian bombs and rockets do not fall
on you and you do not hear the sounds of sirens, and not that you have light
and warmth, but that you can stand in prayer in front of the Zhirovitsa icon of
the Mother of God. This is a unique privilege. This is your special place of
mission here in the temple near Her steps. Because it was Her eyes that
absorbed not only the prayers, tears, and groans of that icon painter, the monk
of God, who wrote it just when his homeland, today's Belarus and Ukraine, was
in the flames of war, but also the numerous prayers of God's people for their
Church and for his people Therefore, I ask you: pray to Her! Because Ukraine
stands and wins precisely because it prays. Ukraine stands and wins by God's
power, not by the support of the powerful of this world. Pray for us - in Kyiv,
Kharkiv, Odesa, in Donbas. You will see: we will endure, we will win, because
the hand of God reaches out to the world today through Ukraine, through the
Ukrainian people, through its visible destiny, historical mission in the past,
present and future.
Today, at the feet of this icon of our Heavenly
Mother, I begin my visit to the Apostolic Capital. I want to submit to Her feet
all the prayers and requests that I have collected from the suffering Ukrainian
people and believers in various cities and villages of Central, Eastern, Northern,
Southern and Western Ukraine.
Yes, today the Lord God has placed upon us,
upon our Church, a special mission to be the voice of the Ukrainian people, to
knock on the doors, hearts, and minds of the rich of this world. But today
we ask, as our Church sang from time immemorial: "Don't entrust me to
human intercession, Most Holy Mistress, but accept the prayer of your servant:
sorrow envelops me, I cannot endure the demonic shooting, I have no cover, and
I have no one to run to, wretched one, always defeated, and I have no comfort
except You, Mistress of the world: hope and protect the faithful, do not reject
my prayer, but make it useful for us"! (Stikhira ch. 6, Canon of prayer to
the Most Holy Theotokos).
Mother of God, our hope, our light in the midst
of darkness, save Ukraine, save our Church, save Your sons and daughters, save
God's people who call out to You day and night, raising their hands and hearts
in prayer! Holy Mother of God, save us! Amen.
07/11/2022 (Source)
Words to Pope Francis, in Rome
The war in Ukraine is distinctly colonial and
the peace proposals coming to us from Russia are nothing more than the
pacification of the colony. Behind them is the denial of the right to the
existence of the Ukrainian people, their history, culture and, in particular,
the Church. They
carry within themselves the denial of the very right to the existence of the
Ukrainian state, recognized by the international community with its sovereignty
and territorial integrity. Russian proposals for peace do not yet have any
objectivity for dialogue.
(…)
This is a symbolic gift not only because it is
a fragment of a Russian mine that destroyed our church in the martyr city of
Irpen, but also because we daily extract similar fragments of Russian mines,
bombs and rockets from the bodies of soldiers, civilians and even innocent
children. They
are visible signs of the total destruction and death that Russia is bringing to
Ukrainian land.
07/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Every word of this Gospel knocks on our hearts
today. Because each of us feels like a hostage of death. We in
Ukraine live in constant danger of death. Mothers mourn their dead
children almost every day.
However, in the midst of our national grief,
crying and pain, we hear good news: God sees! He sees everything, even
what a person no longer has the strength to look at or what he wants to look
away from. I remember one Soviet dissident, an atheist, who wrote the
following words: "God, if You are not here, then please: be! Because
I need a witness who would see the hell that his man created on
earth." Lord, look! Be a witness to all the evil that the
murderous enemy is doing to us.
God sees, but he does not easily see from afar –
He is moving towards us today, He extends His life-giving hand to us even when
our hands are down, He touches us and lifts us up. The Lord sympathizes
with us. Now there is no longer any human patience in which our God and
Saviour does not suffer with us.
Just where it would seem that the complete and
final kingdom of death reigns, our Lord and Saviour comes. Perhaps He is
telling us, me and you: daughter, mother, son, don't cry! These are not
words of human comfort. The Lord God is moving towards us in Ukraine in
order to eliminate the very cause of our pain and crying. Today, the
whole world wonders where Ukrainians have so much strength to
endure. Where does Ukraine have the strength to resist the onslaught,
which the whole world fears in the future? Why are Ukrainians not
afraid? Our philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda aptly answers these words when
he says that we are a people who believe in the resurrection. Whoever
believes in the resurrection, the fear of death has no power over him.
"Seeing her, the Lord looked at her and
said to her: "Don't cry" (Lk. 7, 13). Lord, today our Ukraine
is a weeping widow - come to her, come to us and show us the power of Your
three-day resurrection and Your victory over death! Lord, turn our sadness
into joy, because You promised it to Your children at the Last Supper and You
promise it every time You touch us with Your Body and Your Blood in the
Sacrament of the Eucharist! Lord, extend your life-giving hand to us and
be the author, source and strength of our life, our stability and
victory! Lord, help us today, together with the inhabitants of the city of
Nain, to say: indeed, God has visited his people (cf. Luke 7:16)! Amen.
30/10/2022 (Source)
Daily vídeo address
We
know that the Ukraine that existed before February 24 of this year no longer exists.
And our Motherland, our people, our state can and must become better, emerge
renewed from this barn, from this crucible of war.
27/10/2022
(Source)
Excerpts from interview with Patriarchate magazine
I have not personally seen those hitlists, but
everyone says that I was there. I heard this from many ambassadors who had left
Kyiv at that time, but sent us messages with warnings in different ways. In
particular, from the ambassadors of many European states, with which we are in
closer contact.
(…)
As they say, when someone in wartime says
he's not afraid, don't believe him—he's lying. Fear and hatred are normal human
reactions to such circumstances. Because when you see a Russian tank approach a
peaceful town and start shooting, killing, turning peaceful people, including
pregnant women and children, into living targets, shooting at living people for
fun, then if it did not generate hatred, it would mean that we are fake people.
Hate is a natural human emotion for this type of crime, a reaction to their
rejection, condemnation, recognition of their inadmissibility and a demand to
stop and punish them. But like fear, hate can never be a good counselor.
Because when a person begins to give his mind and his free will into the hands
of emotions of fear and hatred, he becomes their slave. That is why the ancient
sages said that when you allowed the enemy to threaten you or arouse hatred in
your heart, it means that you have already been captured: he has already
defeated you, captured your inner world, your heart, your imagination. The
heart of a person is where our thoughts are born, where the foundations of
actions lie. That is why Christian asceticism teaches that the natural
energy of hatred must be transformed into the virtue of courage. Courage is
a virtue that takes "material" from the realm of anger and transforms
it with the help of humanity, reason, and free will. Those who are able to
survive the transformation of their angry state in this way become very
courageous, aimed at bravely defending their territory. This is how the emotion
of hatred turns into an extremely constructive force that allows not only to
gnash one's teeth and curse the enemy, but to stand up for the defense of one's
Motherland, expel the enemy from one's heart, imagination, and most importantly
from one's city, village, native land. And I saw how our soldiers did it.
Having seen the atrocities and crimes of the occupiers, they courageously
fought the enemy to the last, and even with smaller forces, fewer in number,
but with the power of courage and a sense of moral superiority over the
attacker, they defeated him. Because we don't seize other people's property,
but we defend our own, and this gives us courage in our actions. seeing the
atrocities and crimes of the occupiers.
(…)
Seeing the bodies in this grave gave me an
emotional shock.
You know, the ground there is a little sandy, and when it was opened, there
were mutilated murdered young women, men... We were able to stand on the
edge of this mass grave to pray. And now, during the prayer, I begin to feel
that I am standing on other bodies that have not yet been unfurled from the
ground. I am beginning to realize that the grave I see is actually much bigger!
In such cases, you are thrown into a cold sweat, and you begin to realize: man,
you too could have been in such a grave, because there are people lying in this
one who did not offend the occupiers any more than you. Before the mass grave,
everyone is the same, everyone is equal. It does not matter who you are:
a worker, a priest, a bishop. We are all people, and the enemy who came to us
takes away, wants to take away, the right to life from all of us equally. This
was a very personal experience for me... I also once taught moral theology,
we discussed the rules of "just" war, legitimate self-defense, and so
on. And in the circumstances of cruel reality, this whole theory "falls
down". You have to rethink everything that you knew, knew, and understood
until then. Your knowledge of moral theology suddenly seems to be nullified by
the cruelty that appears before your eyes. Something similar is experienced
by everyone, including those who come to Ukraine with some lofty ideas of
cunning diplomatic moves on how to appease the attacker.
(…)
[Regarding the Good Friday incident at the
Vatican, when the Major Archbishop asked the Pope not to have a Ukrainian and
Russian woman carry the cross together for one of the stations] I felt my
duty to be the voice of the Ukrainian people. It was not about any
criticism, but about making people understand that Ukraine and Russia are
completely different, especially after February 24, 2022. It is obvious
that when someone puts his career first, he will be very afraid to say
something contrary, so as not to spoil something for himself. I was talking
about much more serious things: so that due to unhurried steps, the very
concept of reconciliation as such would not be discredited in the hearts and
minds of Ukrainians, and for decades to come. I explained that when it comes to
reconciliation in our case, it does not mean the reconciliation of ideas, some
good intentions, but the reconciliation of people and peoples who are now
deeply wounded, going through the experience of genocide. Just as, for example,
the phenomenon of pedophilia is being combated in the Catholic Church out of
respect for the victims, so it is necessary to do the same here in order to
fight against the ghosts of the war of the third millennium. It is clear that
the organizers intended to show the need for reconciliation through a symbolic
gesture. But it is necessary to start from respect for the victim, for his feelings.
And I want to tell you that my voice was not the only voice: Greek and
Roman Catholics, spiritual and secular, statesmen and diplomats united in
unison. and we were heard. We managed to do a lot. It is obvious that certain
moments that were already announced could not be changed. But I made the
following proposal: at least let's keep quiet, let's not say anything.
If we stand before the mystery of evil, which
is revealed before our eyes, if we are shocked, then let's not teach others,
let's not teach the Ukrainian people how and with whom they should put up with.
And so it happened. Texts that were prepared in advance and already printed
were postponed. This case once again shows that we need to fight for the
truth, to explain it, because it is understood only by someone who has
experienced the same experience as us. Therefore, we cannot take offense at the
world community, that it sometimes does not understand us. After all, it does
not experience what we experience. Sometimes understanding comes only through
some personal experience. That is why we invite everyone to come to Ukraine and
touch the wounds of the war, to experience this terrible reality in which
Ukraine is living.
(…)
For us Ukrainians, it is self-evident that this
is a war between good and evil. It is obvious to us that we stand for good. But this is not so obvious in what
is often called the post-truth world, and it is a world of compromise.
Sometimes, in order to understand whether Ukrainians are not exaggerating or
whether they are telling the truth, foreigners want to listen to the other side
as well. And here comes powerful Moscow propaganda, which has completely
different rules and goals, is simply a destructive force of evil. Therefore, we
need to constantly explain to the world why we defend ourselves. Because, for
example, some "school" theologians began to question whether our
war and self-defense are really legitimate, if we have to pay such a high price
for it, as Ukraine pays? Shouldn't we give up? We understand that there are
parallels between the actions of Russian propaganda and the actions of the
Nazis during the time of Hitler, who also talked about
"reconciliation" before the start of the Second World War. The Nazi
parties that existed in many countries of the world, including Great Britain,
talked about the need to "understand" Hitler, about the need to
"reconcile" with him. But here the very word "peace"
underwent a substantive mutation and meant to surrender, lay down arms, succumb
to evil. In order to realize this, Great Britain and France had to go
through dramatic processes of cleansing their societies, even their
politicians. Therefore, I think that in order for the Western world to be
cleansed of the virus of Russian propaganda, which, unfortunately, is actively
decaying the minds and souls of many (and dramatic things will still happen
here), the task before us is to explain the spiritual dimension of this
struggle. Our task is to explain to the world why a half-truth is a whole
lie, as Jewish wisdom says; Why, listening to Moscow propaganda, you are
listening to the devil who tempts. We know that in the spiritual struggle with
the devil one cannot dialogue. Because when you start to listen to his
"arguments" and enter into a conversation with him, you have already
lost. So, in our case, the laws of spiritual warfare are in full effect. We
talked about hatred and courage, but also many other aspects of the spiritual
struggle of the Christian ascetic are now becoming the rules of the struggle of
Ukraine and Ukrainians against the Russian aggressor.
(…)
Ukrainian society has its diseases, Russian
society has its own. And this war on the part of Russia is an attempt to solve
its internal problems with external aggression. It is similar to how a serial
killer always looks for a victim, because he is driven to new murders by the
internal pressure of the psychological mechanism to which he is a slave. It is
clear that the victim is not to blame, although the killer says that she
provoked him. He will kill until he is caught. Therefore, the current war was
caused by the defects of that society, that country, which is now a collective
murderer in relation to Ukraine. If there was no Ukraine, they would have found
another victim. They have already declared who will be next. And this indicates
that Russia is driven to murder by an internal mechanism embedded in it,
related to defects and diseases that evolved in Russian society after the
collapse of the USSR. The clot of these diseases is the ideology of the
"Russian world", which I have already mentioned. Yes, Ukrainian
society has its flaws. Sometimes we really didn't fully understand that you
can't have illusions about Russia. We have had a post-colonial mindset for many
years. Even the system of corruption at different levels showed this. Because
it was the corruption of the colony, which once collected tribute from society
in order to transfer it to the metropolis, and then the one who found himself
at the top of the social pyramid, felt like a great colonist in the state in
which he gained power. This post-colonial thinking was a big problem, including
for the political system.
(…)
If I were not a priest, I know exactly what I
would do. Back in 2014, I received a summons from the military commissariat as
a military paramedic. I don't know if I would still be alive, but I know for
sure that I would be in the ranks of military medics. And that is why I keep
this summons as a great relic in my prayer book, from which I pray the church
rule every day.
Visiting military hospitals, having the opportunity to bring some kind of gift,
every time I find a common language with the doctors. After all, I served in
the army as a paramedic and could "taste" that element a little. In
general, I am sure that when the opportunity arises, the Lord God shows us
where and in what place we should serve our people in the struggle for freedom
and independence, to save human lives.
24/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Words about love for enemies sound like a
provocation for us, Ukrainians, because every day we suffer from a Russian
criminal who sows death and destruction on our land. Every day we mourn new
victims of this land. Even the light in our homes is now a luxury because of
the unprecedented terrorism of this attacker, who violates all international
humanitarian rules and customs of warfare. Therefore, we ask: God, how can we
be Christians during war? How can we love our enemies when they methodically,
systematically, brutally kill us? Perhaps, it is precisely in this Gospel about
God's love, which reveals to us mysteries inaccessible to the human mind, that
Christ wants to give us the key to victory over the Russian criminal and attacker.
And the secret of victory is this: evil can be defeated only when we do not
succumb to its logic, its slavery. when we are spiritually.
The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius said:
if you hate, then you have been defeated. If the hatred with which the enemy is
killing us today settles in our heart, it will make us similar to this enemy,
it will take away our strength to resist him. Because man was created for love,
and hatred steals his spiritual strength, dries up his soul, likens him not to
God, but to a criminal, into whose eyes we look.
Today's Gospel gives us not just good advice,
but strength to overcome. Because when we love not because we will receive
something from someone, but because God loves us, then, according to the
teachers of the Church, we seem to carry in our heart an inexhaustible credit
and the source of our strength – the Holy Spirit himself, poured into us by God
heavenly love and power. This Divine grace not only sanctifies us and helps us
resist any form of evil, but is a constant generator of our resilience in the
fight against it and renews and rejuvenates our strength. The psalmist says:
"He saturates your old age with goodness, and renews your youth like an
eagle".
We see that the war is dragging on. We get tired.
Where do we get the inner resource to persevere? Today, Christ gives us the
answer: stay in God's love! Carry within you the love that God has put in your
heart, and it will restore all your strength, turn your pain into wisdom, make
you resistant to evil.
Do not give in to the intimidation of our
enemy! Let us
not give in to his attempt to enslave our mind, our heart and our will with the
spirit of malice and hatred. Moreover, let's defeat that enemy out of love for
himself, limiting his ability to commit crimes. This is a strange paradox of
defensive war.
Today we ask the Lord God for the inner
spiritual greatness with which He so generously blessed our Ukrainian people
and which is abundantly manifested during the war, in particular in the
treatment of Russian prisoners of war or their dead. We ask God for the
generosity that is needed when it comes to the victims of Russian propaganda.
We ask the Lord God of heavenly power to persevere, to grow in love. We ask
the Lord God that first we know how to be just, even in relation to our enemies,
if we do not yet know how, we do not have the strength to fully live in that
evangelical love. But we ask that the strength not of man, but of God,
complements the efforts of our people in the defense of freedom and life in our
Motherland.
Let the power of God's love overcome sin! Let
the power of God's love defeat evil in the context of this invisible
confrontation and spiritual warfare! May God's mercy make us steadfast,
courageous and invincible! Because only the power of God's love will bring true
and just peace to Ukraine.
23/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
My heart aches especially for the orphans, who,
being deprived of parental care, are the most vulnerable, especially amid the
horrors of war. We have received information that 46 pupils of the Kherson
Children's Home are being forcibly deported to Simferopol. We pray for those
orphans. The ancient duty of the bishop of the Christian community is
primarily to care for widows and orphans. Let's pray for those orphans who are
stolen from Ukraine and then deported to an unknown destination
23/10/2022 (Source)
Speech at Pontifical University of St. Thomas
Aquinas
The personal experience of the war we are going
through, indicate that we are not talking about an ordinary war of one
country against another, much less a military operation, but about a real
genocide of the Ukrainian people and terrible crimes against humanity, which
carried out by Russian soldiers. This is an open program for the complete
liquidation of the Ukrainian nation as such, which the famous historian
Timothy Snyder described as one of the most open genocidal documents. This
document clearly calls for the liquidation of the Ukrainian state and the
Ukrainian people.
But for us, it is a real shock to see the
Christian justification of this murderous ideology, to witness the complete
harmony between the Kremlin authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Starting from Patriarch Kirill up to the priests who methodically justify these
crimes, we see how the Christian faith becomes an ideological tool for the
propaganda of Russian Nazism. The justification and call for war on the part of
the Russian Orthodox Church increasingly resembles the doctrine of the Islamic
State of ISIS. Even more, the leaders of this church quote it verbatim,
although they dress in Christian robes. Recently, we even see their priests in
liturgical robes with grenade launchers in their hands shooting on the
battlefield.
If the modern world does not condemn and stop
the genocide of the Ukrainian people, tomorrow we will have even more victims,
as happened in the past with Nazism and communism.
19/10/2022 (Source)
Words during visit to Mikolaiv
Today, being in Mykolaiv means touching the
wounds of this city and Ukraine, which is suffering... But we do not regret
the fact that we are fighting. Because only he who fights for his freedom is
worthy of it. Only he who will not leave the will of his Motherland in anyone's
hands will win.
18/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Yesterday we received some good, good news: 108
Ukrainian women were released from Russian captivity. We thank the Lord God
for these rescued mothers and women, for the fact that they can return home to
their families. Let's wrap these women together today with our attention,
love and prayer, let's warm them with our national warmth. Because the facts
of violence against a woman in Russian captivity, about which they tell, simply
break the heart, make the blood boil in our veins.
(…)
This war will go down in history as one in
which Russia uses violence against the intimate sphere of a person as a weapon
against Ukraine. You can imagine how much this violence against the intimate
sphere of a person hurts the Ukrainian family, the dignity of a man and a
woman, destroys what the Lord God created for love! Let's do everything possible together so that
our men and women love each other, and the Russian occupier never invades the
Ukrainian family with a terrible grimace of violence.
God, You are the God of love, You are the God
of mercy, by the power of Your love, help us to defeat evil and violence in the
midst of this war! God, look with a special eye on the Ukrainian family,
protect this oasis of life and love that You created for human happiness! God,
bless the Ukrainian family! God, bless the Ukrainian soldiers, girls and boys,
who are doing everything today to expel the war and its carriers from our
Motherland! God, bless Ukraine with Your just peace!
18/10/2022 (Source)
Words during vespers
When someone says the word "war" to
me, I see before my eyes a woman in tears - a woman-mother who sees off her son
or daughter to the front, not knowing if she will ever see them again, a mother
in tears who has lost her son, a mother in tears who with her child, she has to
leave her home, her place, because her house was destroyed before her eyes, a
tearful woman who today is storming Europe and other countries of the world to
take care of a temporary shelter for herself and her child while dad is
fighting at the front.
18/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The great calamity of the war broke up
Ukrainian families.
We have already mentioned that the war scattered family members to different
corners of Ukraine and the world. Communication between relatives is reduced to
a call on the phone or via the Internet, and often this connection is lost
altogether due to the stay of the occupation. But the family, as a union of
unity between a man and a woman, needs to live in this unity! Separated hearts
are so eager to be together again! Actually, the family has a very deep
spiritual meaning, because the unity in the Holy Spirit between a man and a
woman is an icon of the unity between Christ and His Church. Apostle Paul
teaches us: just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it, husbands
should love their wives in the same way. This conjugal love is deeply
wounded during the war. And that's why the Ukrainian family in new
circumstances is again looking for this completeness, looking for this new
home, temporary or even permanent. Our families face a big painful question –
how to start all over again, how to put down new roots in a new land, if the
enemy has driven you out of your home?
Communicating with our refugees, especially in
the south of Ukraine, in Odesa region, I heard so many stories of such wounded
families. A woman does not stop carrying a man in her heart even when he is
far from her, somewhere at the front, when there is no connection with him. She
carries it in her heart with her marital fidelity and love. Similarly, our
soldiers who defend our Motherland at the front carry their families in their
hearts. This gives them strength and courage to defend life, freedom,
independence of their family and their people.
17/10/2022 (Source)
Words during visit to Odessa
Pope Francis has said more than once that every
big war is connected with a big lie. This hybrid war that Russia is waging
against Ukraine is also a war of disinformation and propaganda, which kills no
less devastatingly than Russian missiles, shells, bombs and bullets. You and I,
as Christians, have the duty to bear witness to the truth, to speak the truth about Ukraine's
pain, so that, as Shevchenko once wrote, "the whole world will hear what
happened in Ukraine, what she died for, what the Cossack glory became all over
the world”
16/10/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Many families today are separated. Dad is
fighting at the front, and mom and her child are sometimes forced to leave
their home and go to a distant unknown world. We pray for the unification of
those families, for the children to have the right to grow up in a family where
there is a father and a mother together. Where the mother gives all her femininity,
and the father all his masculinity to the children.
Remember in your prayers the families whose
relatives are fighting. Families who have wounded, whose family members are in
captivity or died at the hands of the occupier. These families bear a special
burden of war, restlessness, anxieties and worries. Because God created the
family as an oasis of human life. According to God's plan, the family, as an inseparable, faithful,
fruitful union of love between a man and a woman, is the heart where human life
is born, where it is healed from its wounds and where, according to God's plan,
that life should end here on land
These families are faced with special
questions, looking for answers to the deep truths of the meaning of human life.
Children ask mom and dad: "Where is the Lord God now, when the war is
going on? What is the meaning of our struggle? What is the meaning of our life,
suffering and death?”
The family itself is the basic, fundamental
cell of any society. As the family is strong, there will be a strong nation.
There will be a strong, invincible state.
16/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
of a sermon on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos
This
depth of the Church's prayer, which is revealed to us in the figure of the Most
Pure Virgin Mary, resonates for us in a special way, because we celebrate the
Intercession during the war. Even more, today we celebrate another holiday –
the Day of the Ukrainian Army. Just as this mystical reality of the
intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary reveals to us the nature of the
universal prayer of the Church, so the holiday of the Ukrainian army on the day
of the Intercession reveals to us the nature of the Ukrainian army.
Let's
think about it. Today we celebrate a national holiday – the Day of Defender of
the Motherland. Therefore, the essence of the Ukrainian army is defense.
This is not an army of occupiers, conquerors or invaders, which was created to
humiliate other peoples, steal something from them, take away or, as we say,
annex. This is an army of defenders, which consists of those who are not
looking for someone else, but, having learned from the protection of the Most
Pure Virgin Mary, protect and defend their own: their own people, their
Motherland!
This
nature of the Ukrainian army is revealed in a special way in the current war.
Today is the 233rd day of this bloody war. We, as a people, stand. We stood in
times of the worst danger - when Kyiv, like Constantinople, was almost besieged
by the Russian army - thanks to the power of Christian prayer. This prayer supported, inspired the
Ukrainian army and gave it strength. Therefore, victory is won not only by the
power of human wisdom, weapons and human effort, but also by the power of
church unity and prayer, when heaven and earth, angels and people are united.
Today we
especially pray for our defenders and entrust them to the protection of the
Most Pure Virgin Mary. Let our common prayer, which goes beyond the
boundaries of space and time, human limitations, fly to the front, where blood
is being shed, where our army protects our people and the Motherland with their
chests. May the protection of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, the embrace of the
Mother Church reach our girls and boys in the trenches, on combat duty, may
they strengthen the art of those who today watch over the peaceful sky of
Ukraine and prevent Russian missiles, bombs, and drones from bringing death to
our cities and villages. Let this intercessory prayer flow to the places where
we humanly cannot reach – to our prisoners of war, who are in the prisons of
this cruel enemy, to Russian prisons and torture camps. Let the Mother's prayer
of the Mother of God fall over our suffering soldiers there.
How
can we forget this day our wounded soldiers, who carry Ukraine's wounds on
their body and soul?
Let the motherly veil of the Mother of God spread over every hospital bed
today, whether in a hospital or in a hospital, or even at home, where our
soldiers are recovering and healing their wounds.
On
this day, we want to wrap our soldiers' relatives and loved ones with attention
and prayer, especially those who are experiencing a deep wound of loss, who
live in anxiety for their children who are fighting, waiting for their call,
their text message as the greatest joy in life. Today, our suffering nation has turned into a
warrior nation, which by its very nature learns from the protection of the Most
Pure Virgin Mary to be courageous and steadfast in prayer and courageous and
steadfast in the defense of its Motherland.
15/10/2022
(Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
On the day of the Intercession of the Mother of
God, we especially pray for our protectors. Today, the entire nation joined the
ranks of the Ukrainian army. Yesterday's teachers and sportsmen, yesterday's
culture and art workers, engineers, technologists today joined the ranks of defenders.
On this day, we especially want to surround the Ukrainian army with love,
prayer, and attention. We pray for it, we entrust it to the protection of
the Most Pure Virgin Mary.
14/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
We call on the entire international community,
heads of state, Churches and religious communities, public organizations and
intellectuals of the world to join our voice and strongly condemn this type of
terrorist actions. If you remain silent today, you will be killed tomorrow,
just as they are killing us today. Let's say our resolute "no" to the
state that resorts to such actions to achieve any goals.
(…)
The enemy wanted to intimidate us. He tried to
destroy the critical infrastructure of our towns and villages, including
electricity supply. But Ukrainians stopped being afraid a long time ago. This
type of attack unites our people even more. Ukrainians are even more united in
their desire to persevere to the end in this battle. Today, an air alert
was announced again from the very morning throughout Ukraine. It is possible
that even now the enemy will repeat a similar crime.
On behalf of all Heads of Churches and
religious organizations united in the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, I
consider it my duty to loudly and decisively condemn this act of terrorism,
which the Russian Federation committed and is committing against the Ukrainian
people. Such actions of the Russians are a direct violation of international
humanitarian law, the rules and customs of warfare and cannot be qualified in
any other way as war crimes.
(…)
Thank you! Thanks to your work, we won this
night and this morning. I sincerely thank all the citizens of Ukraine who, at
the call of our energy workers, reduced electricity consumption by more than 26
percent yesterday and thus provided an opportunity to restore the destroyed energy
infrastructure of our cities. I bow down in gratitude to our anti-aircraft
forces of Ukraine, which shot down almost half of the Russian missiles
yesterday and thus prevented the murderous hand of the aggressor from
destroying many of our cities and villages.
Today, this morning, under the wail of the
anti-aircraft siren, we thank the Lord God that we are alive. Thank you for our
defenders, girls and boys, our servicemen, rescuers, all those who save lives
in Ukraine.
11/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
All the saints of the Ukrainian people, holy
martyrs, confessors of our Church, pastors who suffered at the hands of the
communist regime, you are today our strength, our help. Intercede, pray before
God's throne today for our long-suffering people! We thank the Lord God for
those heroes, giants of our national and church history. We continue their holy
work, which we must accomplish today, in particular in the fight against the
Russian aggressor.
In the social, popular dimension, it is very
important for us to understand that we continue the great cause of the fighters
for the freedom and independence of Ukraine, as if embodying it in modern
historical circumstances. But, as Christians, we believe in another sacrament,
which is a characteristic feature of Christ's Church. And this sign, this
reality is called "communion of saints". The Church of Christ as a
community, as the body of the resurrected Saviour, is a community of mutual
help and mutual strengthening. We call it "communion of saints". The
saints in heaven pray for us here on earth. Even more, they strengthen us with
their feats, their strength, their courage. And we, the Church traveling here
on earth, thanks to the unity with the Church glorified in heaven, can defeat
evil. We can perform our spiritual feats.
10/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
With our self-discipline, orderly rhythm of
life, physical activity and proper care for all dimensions of the human being,
including the physical, we prepare ourselves for a long, enduring, but
victorious battle.
(…)
Today is the Lord's Day, Holy Sunday, and we,
believing people, rush to our temples - to stand before God's face, listen to
His word, partake of the Holy Sacraments of the Body and Blood of our Saviour
and draw spiritual, mental, and physical strength from Him in order to endure
this war of attrition, to endure against the evil that is killing dozens,
thousands of Ukrainian citizens before our eyes.
9/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
Let us pray for those who were denied a decent
burial by the enemy, for whom church bells were not rung, prayers were not
sung.
Today, we see that every new liberated city of
Ukraine reveals the terrible facts of torture, abuse, and murders committed by
the Russian occupiers on Ukrainian soil. And these days, the newly liberated
city of Liman shows new victims. A large mass grave was opened again, in which
three small children were already found. May our prayer for their eternal rest go to
the Lord God today.
8/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
In the Russian torture chamber in the Kharkiv
region, prisoners scratched icons of the Virgin and Jesus Christ on the wall,
which represented the living God and His Most Holy Mother to them. Those icons,
which for us, Christians of the Eastern rite, are the mystery of the presence
of eternity in the pre-temporal, the place, the moment of meeting a person with
God. These icons are a deep call, a symbol that tells us: He who prays,
endures. He who prays will stand. And next to them are the badges with which the
prisoners counted the days of their imprisonment.
Prayer for us, Christians, is the moment when
we hold the hand of our God, when the Lord takes me, my life in His hands and
leads Him. He is the source of renewal of our strength. Therefore, prayer
during captivity, suffering, personal grief, war is a source of renewal,
restoration of our strength and the secret of our resilience.
6/10/2022 (Source)
Comment on the annexation of four Ukrainian
provinces by Russia
We have witnessed an unprecedented event in the
history of modern humanity – shameless theft at the state level. The Lord
God commanded man: do not steal! When theft becomes the policy of some state,
and even more, it is presented as a great victory, then this state and its
policy, according to the words of Saint Pope John Paul II, become the structure
of sin in the world.
(…)
Obviously, the Pope understands that for
Ukraine the seriousness of these peace proposals means the search for
mechanisms to return the sovereignty of our state to the borders defined in
1991. It is also important to note that the Apostolic Capital has never
recognized attempts to occupy the Ukrainian Crimea by Russia in the past, and diplomacy, as a tool for
achieving peace in the world, which the Holy Father calls for, is always based
on respect and strict adherence to the norms of international law.
5/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
In that situation, the truth is a weapon that
the enemy does not have and that we have in abundance. It makes us stronger.
You have to keep in touch with this truth, like a pilot keeps an airplane on
course, and constantly check with it.
That is why we repeat again and again that God
is with us, truth is with us, victory is with us. We are on our land and we are
fighting for our freedom, for our free future. As our Kobzar said, in one's
house there is one's own truth, strength, and will. Let us not be disappointed
and discouraged when someone does not understand us in our struggle. When we
win, everyone will understand.
5/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
One of the foundations of our stability is the
belief that Ukraine's victory is inevitable. It is as inevitable as the dawn. And we bring this common national
goal closer with the daily steps of our hope. That's why it's so important not
to stand still when the earth is spinning so fast.
Ninety percent of all injuries that our
soldiers have, are injuries as a result of artillery fire. And only a tenth of
them are bullet wounds. A terrible war, which affects far with its murderous
hand, even beyond the front line, destroying peaceful life in cities and
villages in the East and South of our Motherland.
4/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
When you have the opportunity to visit our
wounded soldiers, you are simply amazed at the strength of spirit they carry.
In their eyes, we see the will of our people to defend freedom on their land.
3/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
Today, there are no rear areas in Ukraine. Each
of us must stand up for the defense of everything that we love, that we call
native – for the defense of Ukraine. And when we truly love, then we will
persevere, we will find the strength not to stop.
2/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from daily video address
We realize today that to win is not only to
face the challenges of today, but also to overcome the threats of tomorrow. To
win is not only to de-occupy illegally occupied and stolen lands in Ukraine.
No! To win means to create a space of dignity for a person on the Ukrainian,
God-given land.
1/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from a sermon
Sometimes it seems to us that in the moment of
the greatest darkness, the greatest suffering, pain and grief, God is not
there. Under bombs, in bomb shelters, people asked: where is God when we are
being killed? Where is He? Christ says today: "I am killed with you, I am
there, where it is most difficult for you, even more – your wounds become My
wounds." When the apostle Paul was beaten, insulted, stoned for the name
of the Lord, he said: "I bear the wounds of Jesus on my body" (Gal.
6, 17).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today, together
with our bishops and metropolitans, we came to the city of Ternopil, the youth
capital of Ukraine, to embrace and bless Ukrainian youth, as well as to bow to
them. Thank you, girls and boys from different parishes, communities,
organizations, even cities of Ukraine, who gathered here, and we have the
opportunity to see you and pray for you. Why should there be such nationwide
respect and thanks to Ukrainian youth today? Because it was on her shoulders
that the burden of this war fell. We say that Ukraine is and will be. But we
must understand that Ukraine is the way Ukrainian youth want it to be. Ukraine
will be as it will be built by the Ukrainian youth.
Observing that reaction, that spontaneous
retreat of youth from different cities and villages of Ukraine during the war,
we can say that the defense of our Motherland, the struggle for the will,
freedom, dignity, and independence of our state became a national youth
movement. Because these are our boys and girls, who are 20-25 years old today,
abundantly sprinkling our Ukrainian God-given land with their blood. These are
our girls and boys who did not take up arms and joined the all-Ukrainian
volunteer movement. And, I think, there is not a single young person who today,
according to his life task, vocation, did not defend the Motherland. Therefore,
I feel it is my duty on behalf of your Mother Church to express my heartfelt
thanks to you.
Our Ukrainian youth are strong, wise, they seek
God. Now I want to testify to you with confidence that the Lord God is with
you. Because if the Ukrainian youth is now crucified on this cross of the
national movement for freedom, then know that our Savior is crucified with you
and with you. You raise him in your arms as the Son of God and know that He is
the One who is – close to you. And that is why we say that from the power of
the honest and life-giving Cross, the sign of victory, comes the power and
victory of Ukraine.
1/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of speech at ceremony in Babyn Yar
On such a day, in such a place, at such a
moment, one wants not to speak, but to remain silent. Be silent and listen. To
listen to what the Ukrainian land will tell us, what the land of Babyny Yar is
talking about today, when we remember the 81st anniversary of the great tragedy
that happened here. What is this place talking about today, what are these
trees making noise about? Today, this is what the words engraved on the
memorial tell us: "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to
Me." I invite all of you to be silent and listen to the voice of blood
that calls out from this earth to the Creator, the voice of the blood of our
brothers and sisters of the Jewish people – we must let this voice into our
hearts today and embrace all those who were innocently killed.
Today, the voice of blood from the Ukrainian
land rises to the heavens: the voice of the blood of those innocently killed by
the Russian occupier - children, women, old men, the voice of the blood of the
sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people, who today protect Ukraine from the
new misanthropic, essentially Nazi, ideologies that continue to kill. And
speaking, then only to God, listening to this voice of the Ukrainian land and
the voice of the blood of our innocently murdered brothers, fathers, and
sisters.
God of spirits and all flesh, You overcame
death and destroyed the devil, and gave life to Your world. You, Lord, rest the
souls of Your innocently murdered servants in a bright place, in a blooming
place, in a calm place, from where all pain, sadness and sighing have fled. And
all sins committed by them in word or deed or thought, as a good and man-loving
God, forgive. Because there is no man who would live and not sin. You are the
only one without sin. Your truth is eternal truth. And Your word is the truth.
For You are the resurrection, the life and the repose of Your departed
servants, Christ our God, and to You we send glory, with Your beginningless
Father, and with Your Most Holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now, and
always, and forever and ever. Amen. Eternal memory to them!
29/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Being yourself, being a person means having the
opportunity and the right to do good. This type of freedom-loving and
consciousness of calling to this freedom of the Ukrainian people has always
been something terrible for any tyrants, invaders who came to the Ukrainian
land. At one time, my great predecessor, Blessed Lubomyr, said the
following phrase that "dictators are less afraid of hunger riots in their
countries than free people, because the hungry can be bought, and the free can
only be killed."
(…)
The whole world is surprised – Ukraine is in
an unequal battle for the 8th month. Where does that power come from? Where
does that inviolability come from? During this war, communicating with our
soldiers, with those who were in Russian captivity, in Russian torture camps,
communicating with our refugees, immigrants, with our monks and nuns, I somehow
felt that there are certain principles and certain foundations of this
stability. Perhaps we still can't understand everything until the end. But
there is something that really gives us strength to stand. A fulcrum to lean
on.
We feel something that distinguishes the Ukrainian
character from the peoples of other countries. And here we are not talking
about any one ethnic group - we are talking about all residents of Ukraine. It
is that we all have an innate sense and desire to be free. This is the consciousness that we are
children of God, and not slaves of human illusions. And we understand that this
is also our Christian vocation, the path to real, true, complete freedom. This
is not about some kind of anarchy, the desire to do whatever one wants. This is
a deep national understanding that freedom is the ability and right to do good.
To be free for a person is to be a person. When someone steals a person's
freedom, he steals his humanity, and thus destroys his humanity.
Many of those who were in Russian captivity, in
Russian torture chambers, somehow felt that even they, being with their hands
tied and eyes closed, were freer, lived in a higher level of freedom than their
executioners. And that is why the Russian occupier hates a free Ukrainian
person, because this occupier is a slave. A slave to the human illusions of
their dictators. He understands this in the depths of his heart.
No one can take away a person's freedom.
Freedom, personal freedom, a person can only give himself. He can renounce her,
he can run away from her. Run away from responsibility without courage. The
Ukrainian people demonstrated that we have the courage to be free.
In those days, I remembered the phrase of a nun
with whom we had known for many years, since the days of Soviet persecution,
when we considered the free world in the west behind the Iron Curtain to be a
free world. And when she heard that today some of the world politicians or
various figures of the free world are so greedy for Russian money, and the
price of Russian energy carriers can sometimes be more valuable than freedom,
that nun said: "It seems the same is true among the rich in the West there
are more hungry people who are bought than free people who are ready to
appreciate and defend freedom”.
God, You gave us our freedom as a calling to
the fullness of the ability to do good. Help us fulfill this calling. God, help
us to have the courage to be free. God, help Ukraine today to stand in this
unequal battle. God, bless our Ukrainian army. God, grant our Ukraine freedom
and Your blessed heavenly peace.
28/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Today, the Savior himself is crucified in
the body of the Ukrainian people and from his pierced side reveals to us
the source of life, the source of the Sacraments of Christ's Church, the source
of eternal life. Today, Ukraine honors the sign, the symbol of victory over
evil, the devil and his servants, all those who bring death today - honors the
honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord and moves forward with its power.
27/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
The glory that now emanates from the honest and
life-giving Cross in Kyiv to the whole of Ukraine is something that we have not
yet fully understood, but which touches us to the core. Because today
Ukraine understands that the Lord's Cross is its sign of victory over the
enemy. The enemy is waging a colonial war against us. And today we say from
Kyiv that this is probably the last colonial war in Europe in the history of
mankind. They want to erase us from the face of the earth, deny our right to
exist as a people, just as the Romans once wanted to erase the very mention
of Jerusalem.
But it is the power of the honest and life-giving
Cross that will be the victory of Ukraine, the moment when the humiliated will
become exalted, when the Lord will dethrone the powerful and lift up the
humble.
27/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Those words about the Lord's Cross, about God's
love, which warms and saves, resurrects and gives hope, are life-giving for
Ukraine in the conditions of war.
Today, the whole world is wondering where we,
our people, get the strength that allows us to resist the aggressor, who grinds
his teeth against Ukraine and no longer knows what to do with us. Where do
Ukrainians have the strength to resist? We give an answer to this question:
Ukrainians love and feel that God loves them. Ukrainians are strong because
they love their land, Motherland, their people, their children, women and
elders.
We are strong in our love, which we draw from
the eternal source of Divine love, which is given to us through the honest and
life-giving Cross.
That is why it is so important for us in the conditions of war to understand
that the Cross can be both the greatest humiliation and pain, and the moment of
exaltation and glorification.
The Cross of the Lord, on which we are
crucified today as a nation, is the key to our glory and victory! This
crucifixion of ours is God's word through Ukraine to the world and modern man
about the victorious and saving power of God's love!
26/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Ukrainian troops are liberating the north and
south of our Motherland, but every centimetre of Ukrainian land is sprinkled with
the blood of our defenders.
[Regarding freeing of Azov regiment POWs] We
thank God for saving their lives. Now we have to surround them with attention,
prayer and love in order to heal the wounds they bear on their souls and bodies
after the brutality of the Russian occupier.
22/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
This year we celebrate the Nativity of the
Mother of God during the war. We see that this time is the space of death, in
the face of which we all stare every day. We make every effort to resist it, we
wage war against sin and death. This is a tireless and invisible battle – that's what the teachers of
our Church say.
What do we need to be fruitful in this
struggle; so that, overcoming the kingdom of death, which the occupier brings
to our land, we expand the space of life; so that the sterility of our nature
in the conditions of war is resolved? We need the power of Divine grace, the
fruitful power of the Holy Spirit, which is given to us through prayer and the
intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, who today, perhaps for the second time
in the history of human hearts, is born among us.
Therefore, celebrating this holiday, let us run
to the Virgin Mary, who crushed the head of the ancient serpent that tempted
our ancestors in paradise, who defeated death and who was free from sin from
the very conception in the barren womb of righteous Anna. The birth of the
Mother of God from Anna's frozen womb is a prophecy of the Resurrection of
Christ, His exit in a glorified body from the sealed tomb, in the body that
Mary gave Him.
Let's rejoice in this holiday, because for us
it is a celebration of the birth of our hope in the conditions of war! This is a celebration of the birth
of a new action, a new power, a new reality for all of us! We should not just
know about this holiday, but celebrate it, that is, let this event, which we
remember today, become a part of our lives, solve the fruitlessness of personal
efforts.
21/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Now, when we reflect on these events, rescue
operations are ongoing in the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk region, where the
enemy destroyed a high-rise building and many people were trapped under the
rubble. Unceasing work is going on to save human life. What we see on the
liberated territory of Kharkiv Region causes us great pain. Work on the
exhumation of Russian victims near the city of Izyum continues. Terrible
scenes of abuse, torture, torture, and mass murders are revealed. More and
more alarming news from the occupied territories reaches us. The Russians
intensify repression against the civilian population, carry out violent
mobilization, catch men around the clock to force them to kill their brothers
and sisters.
20/09/2022 (Source)
Words to Commissioner for Human Rights of
Verkhovna Rada
I carefully watched how you visited the
de-occupied territories of Kharkiv region, in particular I listened to your
speeches in the city of Izyum, where you were during the exhumation of our
innocently murdered brothers and sisters. We were all moved by the "Our
Father" prayer scratched on the wall in the Russian torture chamber. We
can only imagine what those people endured, regardless of which Church they
went to, which language they spoke. These are our brothers and sisters, and our
hearts truly ache for them.
20/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We are often asked: do
you, in Ukraine, have hope? And we say: yes, we have it, because God gives it
to us, not man. We are a people of faith and in faith we receive hope. So we
can go on, bravely, patiently endure our difficulties. And this hope moves us
to victory over the Russian aggressor, to victory not only in war, but also
over war, to victory, the crown of which will be peace in our Motherland.
(…)
Today, believing Europe
kneels before the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of our Savior and prays
for Ukraine. Today is a day of vigil and prayer before the Most Holy Mysteries
for peace in Ukraine. Christians living according to the Gregorian calendar
today celebrate the Exaltation of the honest and life-giving Cross. Today,
Europe, the believing world, sees a crucified Ukraine precisely in the
crucified Savior. The Holy Father Francis, whom we are accompanying in prayer
to Kazakhstan, invites believing Christians on this day to see the wounds of
the crucified Savior precisely in the wounds of Ukraine.
We feel the power of
your prayer, which is the source of our hope that together we
will defeat evil
14/9/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Terrible, terrible war
crimes against humanity are also being discovered. About 200 war crimes are
recorded every day. These are mass murders of the civilian population, torture,
looting and all that really qualifies as a war crime.
It breaks our hearts when
we look at what the Russian occupier leaves behind on Ukrainian soil. Today,
this is what can be registered: more than 900 health care facilities, more than
200 churches and religious buildings have been destroyed.
(…)
When we look today at what the enemy leaves behind - burned and
destroyed cities and villages, burnt fields of wheat, plundered forests, mined
chernozems, polluted ponds, rivers and water sources from which it is no longer
possible to drink, then we understand that war is not only a crime against
human life, but also against God's creation.
13/09/2022 (Source)
Words during a radio
interview
A new world will emerge
through Ukraine, where evil will be defeated. Ukraine is the point from which a
new world will emerge. A reboot of the world is in the air, and world
politicians are already repeating this thesis in their own way - Europe will be
renewed through Ukraine. But - is the world possible without evil,
which is a part of it? For Ukraine today, this evil is personified, it
is Russia, but in the world there are other totalitarian regimes, other
manifestations of evil.
(…)
What is happening in
Ukraine today already has global consequences. It is not only about certain
military, economic, geopolitical or other consequences, but about very deep
moral foundations of human life as such. Because when we talk about good and
evil, we are talking about moral principles without which a person cannot exist.
What is happening in Ukraine today? Ukrainians have shown the whole world
that there is something and there is someone worth giving even one's life for.
That is, there are some objective truths - or values - that can be the
meaning of life. And if that is taken away from you, life loses its meaning.
Yes, there is good and
there is evil. Perhaps it is so obvious to us in Ukraine today that we do not
fully feel the context in which the rest of the world still lives. The world
today lives in a post-truth context. That is why Russian propaganda so easily
captures people's minds and hearts - "what's the difference?" If
there is no objective truth, it means that there is no objective good and
objective evil. And our behavior, our categorical "no" to Russian
aggression is, as it were, a Copernican revolution for the modern world, when
we, with our desperate position of disagreement with evil and untruth, proclaim
to the whole world that there is good in the world!
There is an objective
truth. Maybe someone does not accept it, maybe someone is afraid of it. But
there is something worth giving your life for. This was once called
"higher values" in traditional philosophy – there is something that
cannot be assessed only by the categories of consumer society. And if so, then
it is possible to build such a life, such a personal and social space, where
there would be more good and less evil. We see today that evil is not some
abstract truth, evil really kills. When someone lives in the grip of evil, he
becomes dangerous - for himself, for his neighbor, for society and for the
world. On the other hand, we are today de facto provoking the world to have the
courage to say it with our moral strength and position of "no to
evil!" Because post-truth confuses the concepts of good and evil, and
modern man is disoriented, he does not know where to go.
Will we wait for a
world in which there will be no evil? For Christians, it is also a matter of
faith. We say: we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to
come. We build our earthly life as the image and likeness of the Kingdom of
Heaven. Christians are those who spread the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
When we live in the truth, we live, trying to do good and avoid evil every day,
then we build that space, that world, where there is less evil.
Therefore, I believe, that
what is happening in Ukraine today is a certain moral revolution - primarily
for the Ukrainians themselves. Today we are beginning to understand who should
not have been elected to power. We begin to understand how our society had to
be built in a different way, how we had to resist certain patterns of colonial
or post-colonial society. Because this war that Russia is waging against
Ukraine is a typical colonial war. That is, we begin to see. And I would
really like for us not to lose this painful experience of war as a certain new
opportunity to learn, perhaps even from our own mistakes. And that's why
today we have to think about what Ukraine will be like when we win. I have no
doubt that there will be victory. But already today we have to think about the
society we want to have when we expel the occupier. We have to build that
society.
13/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Modern man has many temptations to behave with
the one whom the Lord sends, as these murderous vinedressers behaved. How
often we see today in the life of individual states and even at the level of
international relations, that the power of law is replaced by the right of the
strong. What does someone who thinks he is strong do? He kills and destroys the
weak, because he thinks that he can appropriate for himself what he should give
to the needy and defenceless. However, having appropriated something, one
loses everything. Christ says what will happen to those vinedressers: "He
will destroy the furious, but he will rent the vineyard to other vinedressers
who will give him fruit in due time" (Mt. 21, 40-41).
Humiliating the weak in personal, spiritual or
even public life in order to assert ourselves, we do the same as those
murderous vinedressers. We appropriate God's property, the right to judge, distinguish
or say who should live and who should die. It's as if we ourselves become
arbiters who remove God from this world and say: now I will decide what is good
and what is evil. However, later we lose everything we had until now.
This word of God about violence in man's
attitude towards God, I think, resonates in a special way in the ears of modern
Ukrainians. Today we thank the Lord God for the fact that our God-blessed army
is liberating Ukrainian lands step by step. Perhaps we were all moved by the
footage of people with tears in their eyes coming out and hugging our soldiers,
saying, "We've been praying for half a year for this day to come." In
such circumstances, we see how this word of God is carried out in the history
of our family. The one who wanted to deprive us of everything now risks losing
everything. The invading enemy, in his colonialist urge, wants to kill Ukraine
and appropriate our heritage. Trying to destroy us, he once again kills the
very Son of God – the Savior.
Instead, we should persevere in good, not be
like those murderous vinedressers. For us, the cornerstone is Christ! If He
becomes the foundation of our life, the basis of the construction and
protection of our independent state, then the words will come true for us: "The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone... This has come
from the Lord and is amazing in our eyes" (Mt. 21, 42).
We say today: Lord, come to our vineyard, to
our people, make us wise so that we see You in the needy person whom You send to
us today. In this dramatic time of the harvest, of the calamity of war, make us
able to bring you the fruits of our life's vineyard. Give us a dignified
reception of You, who comes to us in the person of one who does not have a
home, because it was destroyed by the enemy, in the person of my relative or
relative, or perhaps a migrant and a completely unfamiliar person, to whom I
must transfer the fruits of labour in Your vineyard.
God, come to us! Let us put You, like wise
builders, as the cornerstone of our personal, social and state life. And then
everything that happens next will be Your business, Your business. Because it
is You who fiercely destroys the fierce, takes the vineyard from the usurpers
and gives it to those who will bear fruit in due time. It is You who lift up
the humble and rejected, and let the rich go empty-handed! (cf. Lk. 1, 52–53).
Then, together with You, we will be strange to the whole world. Because it will
happen from the Lord and it will be amazing in our eyes. Amen.
11/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The main news of the past day is the rapid
de-occupation of the cities and villages of the Kharkiv region in the context
of the brilliant counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army. Important large cities
were liberated: Kupyansk, Izyum and many others. However we all understand that
every release, every tear of joy of our people, which appears with the approach
of the Ukrainian army, is sprinkled with the blood of our liberating
soldiers... And on
this Sunday, we pay tribute in prayer to those of our girls and boys who
especially these days, at the cost of their own lives, they liberate the
Ukrainian land from the occupier... Today, the Ukrainian flag is becoming a
symbol of peace and freedom, for which we pray to God every day.
11/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
This war continues to inflict deep wounds on
our people and cause enormous humanitarian consequences. Neither the Ukrainians
nor the international community have yet realized their size. However, even
today, specialists note that 57 percent of Ukrainians are traumatized by the
war. Many have
so-called post-traumatic stress disorder. This cannot help but affect the mood
of our society, all those processes that then affect relations between people.
(…)
Today we hear at such a high level that more
than 2.5 million citizens have already been deported from the occupied
territories of the south and east of Ukraine. Ukrainians are taken to the Far
East, to Siberia. Among them are 38,000 children, most of whom were deprived of
parental care, that is, deported without their parents. This is a big wound, a
big pain for the Ukrainian people. Therefore, today we should especially pray
for those who passed through the filtration concentration camps, and were
therefore forced to leave their hometown or village at gunpoint.
08/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
According to the reports we receive from the
Ukrainian authorities, since the beginning of the war, 3,500 rockets have been
fired over Ukraine. This is an absolute record in the history of modern wars.
More than 7,000 civilians died and 5,500 were injured. This is only according
to official data, in reality these numbers are much higher. Almost a third of
the population of Ukraine became either refugees or forcibly displaced persons.
Only in the past day, 14 Russian missiles were fired at the cities and villages
of Ukraine, and 15 airstrikes were carried out. Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, Ochakiv
and Voznesensk shuddered yesterday. The world has no right to get used to
this war. This is an open wound of modern humanity. Let's pray together for
modern humanity to be able to overcome this war!
05/09/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We are especially grateful to the Armed Forces
of Ukraine for the fact that we are alive, that Ukraine is standing and that
Ukraine is trying step by step to liberate its land from the bloodthirsty
Russian occupier.
(…)
We see that the occupier is coming to steal. In particular, the evidence of the
behaviour of the occupiers in the south of our Motherland in recent weeks is
simply shocking. Enemies come and expel Ukrainians from their houses, and
settle their families there.
04/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
How many truly believing people do we have
today who are ready to give everything in order to, first of all, be human,
then to be a free people on their land. Because it is not enough to have
freedom, one must also be free, to be able to dispose of that freedom
correctly. Perhaps the enemy who set foot on Ukrainian soil lacked exactly
this, such grace and strength, because he only calculated what Ukraine had, but
did not understand who Ukrainians are. Therefore, we can say that with God's
help there is and will be a believing Ukraine!
04/09/2022 (Source)
Thoughts of His Beatitude Sviatoslav about healing the wounds of the war in Ukraine
(…)
6. Don't let anyone get used to war!
Sometimes we see that information about the war in Ukraine starts to bore some people. Technically speaking, the war in Ukraine ceases to be news on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, particularly in Western Europe or North America. Our task is to keep the wave going. Raise conscience. Maybe sometimes we have to be like the annoying mosquito that keeps us awake. Because when we come to terms with the fact that there is a war and that the Russians are killing civilians in Ukraine, it will become another tragedy that we have no right to allow. It would be an information disaster for modern humanity. And that is why our task is to awaken people's hearts with the word of truth.
29/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on the feast of the Assumption
What happened in Kyiv six months ago was difficult to predict and describe in words. And the fact that our capital has stood up, we feel today as the fruit of a special intercession prayer of the Most Pure Virgin Mary. In Kyiv, there is a thousand-year-old certainty and spiritual tradition: as long as Oranta - the Immovable Wall - stands in Saint Sophia, the enemy will not be able to overcome the city and it will stand. I thank the Mother of God for saving our souls from death!
It is difficult to understand and express, but the Russian troops stopped twenty kilometers from the Patriarchal Cathedral. The front line really separated life from death. We heard explosions, even learned to distinguish the types of weapons used. Then, after the liberation of the now world-famous settlements: Irpenya, Buchi, Borodyanka, Gostomel, we saw mountains of corpses on their streets that no one had cleaned. We stood on the edge of the mass grave and watched the young people with their hands tied, thrown on top of each other. At that moment, we realized how cowardly and despicable the enemy is, who loots and takes everything he can, starting with small things, clothes and ending with household items. We saw the cowardice of traitors who drew up firing lists, handed over their neighbors to torture and death, counting on the "seat in power" of the occupiers or other privileges. We saw the cowardice of the adjusters of enemy fire, who called down the fire of enemy rockets on the heads of the inhabitants of their own cities and villages for Jewish silver coins.
However, in those circumstances, we saw that, as a nation, we are winning and will win thanks to the generosity of Ukrainians. We saw the spiritual greatness of our soldiers, who generously gave everything at the cost of their own lives to save Ukraine. We saw the magnanimity and selflessness of doctors who performed extremely complex operations under the bombs. We saw the generosity and heroism of the rescuers who risked their lives to pull their brothers and sisters out from under the rubble of their broken homes. There, like nowhere else, you understand that the Ukrainian people will win because we are bigger in soul than our enemy, morally and spiritually higher than him. To win, it is not enough to have good and modern weapons, you also need to have an inner, spiritual advantage.
That is why we have gathered here today, in this holy place, to give thanks that after half a year of war we are alive, we can be together, pray live for the victory of Ukraine and understand that the spiritual greatness of our people is rooted in God's generosity.
I was impressed by the generosity of the Ukrainians in the first months of the war, when the Russians did not want to take the bodies of their dead soldiers. Then our people created a special network that enabled fathers and mothers on the other side of the border to find their murdered children. However, no one wanted to accept the latter.
Today, our people in Kherson say that the Russians have turned this city into Buchenwald. The stench is felt over the city every day, because the occupiers in mobile crematoria day and night burn the bodies of "theirs", those whose names the invading country itself erases from history and sends not only to death, but also to eternal condemnation, shame and non-existence.
28/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The next principle of war prevention is a strong condemnation of the involvement in armed conflicts of children and adolescents who are recruited, regardless of their age. Unfortunately, this is happening in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which today are under the boot of the Russian aggressor. Children who are forced to fight or who make such decisions on their own, often without realizing the consequences, are deprived of education, upbringing and taught to kill... This is a terrible crime.
The Church also strongly condemns terrorism. It cannot be justified in any way, because it carries a complete contempt for human life, which is always an end and not a means to an end, even if it is justified from a political point of view. And to declare oneself a terrorist in the name of God is profanation and blasphemy, contempt of God himself. Therefore, there is a right to defend oneself against terrorism. And today our Motherland is forced to defend itself against terrorism on various fronts.
25/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The enemy thought that in three days they would march in Kyiv with an unholy parade, but we are celebrating the Independence Day of Ukraine.
24/08/2022 (Source)
Prayer on Independence Day
God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, on this day we stand together before Your face and thank You for the gift of freedom, for the gift of independence, for the gift of restoring the Ukrainian State. We ask You today: save, O God, Your people and bless Your inheritance, bless our people, our government, our army. Hear the cry, the cry of Your people of Ukraine. Give victory to the Ukrainian army over the unjust Russian occupier and aggressor. Bless our volunteers, doctors. Bless all those who save the human life given by You. Today we beg You for our brothers and sisters in the occupied territories, in the war zone. We beseech You for displaced persons and refugees, for all those to whom the war has inflicted deep wounds.
Lord, You are our Savior, the only physician of our souls and bodies, save us today! In Your fortress, Ukraine is and will be Your invincible State!
Today, under Your protection, Mother of God, we give our Motherland. Cover it with your honest omophorion. Mother of God, Oranto of Kyiv, pray for Your people! Amen.
24/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
We see that in Ukraine, out of ten attacks by Russian weapons, only one hit is on military targets, and all the others aim to destroy and kill the civilian population. This only emphasizes the immorality of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Attempts to destroy entire national, religious or linguistic groups of people are a crime against God and all humanity. Those guilty of this must be brought to justice. However, we see that the truth always wins. The power of good and protection of peace is always stronger than the power of weapons and diabolical plans of an unjust attacker.
22/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Who are those who come to kill us, who torture our children, women and old men? These are people from those regions of Russia, where the criminal authorities stole the opportunity for integral and fair development, personal, of their family, people, even the part of the country where they live. The only way the Russian authorities offer them to survive, support their families, and find a means of livelihood is to go and kill. This type of recruiters, unfortunately, spread throughout Russia, even through the network of Orthodox churches, encouraging them with rewards. And the worst thing is that they give permission to kill with impunity and get rich by looting. And since these people were robbed of the opportunity to live and develop, they go to kill Ukrainians.
(…)
No one and nothing can justify the start of war in the modern world. She is always immoral. This is a tragic moment that can always be avoided. There is no excuse for those who use war as a tool to solve socio-political or international problems. Therefore, the conscience of every honest person calls him and the world to condemn the war. War can never be justified by means, methods, or goals. That is why it is so painful to hear that someone today, even among religious figures, justifies her.
There are about 20 different wars going on in the world today. But in Ukraine it is something special and more dangerous, because it was started by a country with atomic weapons and threatens not only our country, but also the whole world. The war in Ukraine is a crime against humanity, a defeat for humanity, and hence the danger of involving the whole of humanity in a military adventure. Therefore, we must all do everything in order to stop the unjust aggressor, who condemns his own people to poverty and kills Ukrainians on their own territory.
God, grant peace to modern humanity! God, destroy the plans of the aggressor, stop his murderous hand with Your divine power! God, support all the efforts that humanity is making today to nip in the bud the devil's plans to sow war in the bosom of modern humanity. God, bless Ukraine with Your just heavenly peace!
21/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Today, together with Peter, James and John,
contemplating the transfigured Savior, we ask Him: shine your face over our
Motherland, because we want it to be good for us to be here in Ukraine; that
Ukrainians do not have to leave their homes under Russian bombs or fleeing
occupation by Russian tanks; so that they do not have to leave the Motherland,
escaping from dangers. God, from Mount Taurus, show us this Easter perspective
for the future of our people! We want to see our hope for victory in Your face
and light.
20/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Violence is a sign of powerlessness. We can clearly see this in the relationships between people in society. Similarly, in the international arena, when some crazy dictator has no other arguments, no other opportunity to defend his position, because he knows that he does not have the truth and does not carry justice, then his last argument becomes war and violence. That is why it is so important for all of us to affirm justice and love, which will bring peace to our hearts, families, and society and give peace to the long-suffering modern humanity.
20/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Unfortunately, we see how today the war in Ukraine has become a challenge for international law. The Russian aggressor does not respect anyone: neither his own citizens, nor the rights of Ukraine, nor his state, cultural, and spiritual sovereignty. He despises international law and institutions. Therefore, what is currently happening in Ukraine is a matter for all humanity, because it undermines the very foundations, the foundations of international law.
18/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
I am addressing you, mothers, with a special request: take care of the Christian and patriotic upbringing of your children! Learn the Ukrainian language, teach your children the true history of Ukraine — the history of suffering and struggle of our people. Take care of the Christian upbringing of your children. After all, if you do not give them real moral guidelines in life, then all the material things that you acquire for them, they will quickly spend.
Today we surround you with attention and love and ask you to be active citizens of Ukraine and responsible for the future of your children and our Motherland. Look for work! Get involved in the active life of local communities and be sure that we will all help you in this. Because decent work, in accordance with your talents, profession, is one of the ways of showing your Motherland's respect for you, your skill, dignity, gift of motherhood. Together with you, we pray for your husbands, who may be far away today, but are so in need of our memory, attention, prayers, and support.
12/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of daily video address
During war, we can feel a certain devaluation of human life. Sometimes our conscience is dulled when we hear about dozens killed and hundreds wounded. But every person killed is a tragedy. This is the failure of humanity. This is the problem of all those who today talk about law, law, and international relations. Therefore, the ability to respect human life, the dignity of every person, respect their rights regardless of ethnic, national origin, religious or political beliefs is the cornerstone of the construction of any fair, dignified person in the country. May the Lord God help us to build a state worthy of us, where everyone can develop their talents and live a dignified life on this God-given land.
(…)
Dear Mothers, I express to you on behalf of our entire Church, the Ukrainian people, words of deep sympathy and assurance in prayer. We are with you in this painful moment. We honor the high price your child paid for the freedom and independence of our Motherland. Thank you, Mother, for understanding the value of your son or daughter's sacrifice. We want to wrap you in the warmth of love and pastoral care in order to help you survive the pain of a terrible and irreparable loss. The mothers of our heroes gather in different communities to mutually support each other, and our Church creates appropriate spaces for such mutual assistance.
10/08/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of a sermon
We have been experiencing this event about the multiplication of loaves in a strange way in Ukraine for almost six months. We lack everything to stand up to an unjust aggressor. But Christ is present among us, as then in a desert place among his disciples and apostles. Christ who takes care of his people, who is patient, Christ who has mercy on people and says: "They do not need to go away: you give them something to eat" (Mt. 14, 16). And we see that when we are in solidarity, when we share what we have, when above all we give even the last thing we have into God's hands, then nothing is lacking for anyone.
Today we ask: Lord, You see the thirsty and hungry in Ukraine. You see those who suffer from war. You see that sometimes confused people feel like sheep without a shepherd. God, be between us! We place everything in Your hands: our resources, human, material, all others, ourselves and each other. Be among us as the One who breaks bread and feeds us! If necessary, even break our lives in order to multiply them and make your presence life-giving here, among us, in the body of our people. Let Your life-giving power, which multiplies everything, pulsate among us and be the secret of our tirelessness, endurance and victory. The Gospel says: "They all ate until they were satisfied and gathered the morsels that remained, twelve baskets full" (Mt. 14, 20). Lord, let it happen on Ukrainian land, let it be an icon of the feast of Ukraine's victory over the enemy, who today wants to rob us of everything and condemns us to a cold and hungry death. God, be with us today!
08/08/2022 (Source)
Thoughts on patriotism
1. The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is not a state, but a state-creating one. What is the difference?
Statehood is a certain type of relationship between people, certain values, rules that become laws. And so it is the Christian faith that is the source of the thousand-year-old experience of state-building. And never vice versa! It cannot be said that the state is the source of the Church, that the state in one way or another creates various church institutions and structures. If we are talking about the state Church and the state-creating Church, then these are two completely different realities. The State-creating Church is the source of statehood. This is clearly visible from the history of our Church. Because it was precisely because of the existence of the Ukrainian Church that Ukrainian statehood was reborn and arose, and the desire of the Ukrainian people to have their own state was manifested. And the state Church is a cog in the state machine. And when we see that some Churches were tempted to become a cog in the state machine, then they alienated themselves from their people, became not the voice of God for the people, but the voice of this or that secular power. Our Church has never been a cog in some state machine, never a state Church, but has always been a people's, and therefore state-creating.
2. How does the Church cooperate with the state?
The Greek Catholic Church advocates the secularity of the state and partnership relations between the state and church and religious organizations. Everyone should be comfortable in such a state: Christians, Muslims, or perhaps those who currently do not participate in the life of any religious community. No belief or religion can be forced upon anyone. Because this is violence against his conscience. In order to understand this, centuries have passed. The church had to realize its role in society. The secularity of the state means that none of the Churches or religions can claim the role of the state. Therefore, especially in the conditions of a multi-religious state, which is Ukraine, I think that this is a very correct way of organizing our people in their state-building activities. But state secularism does not mean opposing state structures to church or religious organizations. After all, we have many common tasks, we must work together for the common good and the good of this nation.
The Church never forces anything, never imposes anything on anyone, but is a mother and a teacher who speaks to the heart. And in this way we work for the common good.
3. What happens if the state privileges one Church over others?
This means that it made a bet on a certain Church and thus, de facto, interprets it as a state one. And according to Ukrainian legislation, the state authorities must treat all Churches and religious organizations absolutely equally. Whether they are small or large, powerful or weak, they have the right to exist and be treated equally. We all have equal rights. By the way, this is one of the foundations on which the life and activity of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations is formed: "We are all different, but we are all equal." When the state behaves like this with the religious environment, then there is no danger of nationalization of such a structure. There is another danger: when some Church offers itself to the state as a tool to achieve a goal, particularly a political one. This is very visible during elections. When some Church begins to support one political power and when that political power comes to power, then the representatives of a certain Church remind about it. This is also a dangerous sign when the crown and the mitre merge.
4. What is patriotism?
There are different types of patriotism. We talk about Christian as love for one's Motherland. Today, we don't always realize what that means. We use the word "love" so often that it loses its meaning. You have to learn to love. And love should always be active. And, it is obvious that love is the essence of what we are talking about as patriotism. Love creates heroes, and hate creates criminals. We clearly stated this in our message to this year's Synod of Bishops of the UGCC. A patriot is not necessarily the one who shoots, but necessarily the one who loves. The Church teaches its faithful to love. The Christian community is a school of love that explains that love does not mean taking what I like, but giving myself to someone in need. Give as much as I can. Even all of himself. True patriotism will never be seasoned with antagonism or hatred. Even to enemies. Christian patriotism must be distinguished from other types of so-called love for the Motherland, which, in fact, is national egoism. A chauvinist will also say that he is standing up for his country. But he wants to achieve the greatness of his state by humiliating others. Sometimes we say that protecting your own is a universal human rule. Even a heathen understands that it is necessary to protect one's home and property when a thief comes. What is Christian here? A Christian understands that it is not hatred and opposition to others that makes us able to fulfil our Christian task of protecting the Motherland, but the ability to give oneself. And this must be learned. Today, we very often say that there are sofa patriots who are ready to love Ukraine, but only on their sofa with a warm cup of coffee. And this is obviously a caricature of patriotism.
5. Not sofa patriots...
I am proud of my people. I am proud of Ukrainian patriots who are ready to defend their country without the slightest drop of hatred. They say: "We don't need someone else's, and we won't give away ours." We do not encroach on other people's property, but we love our own and are even ready to share ours." And, it is obvious that today until the end our enemy does not understand that he is not fighting with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but with the people. Today, Ukraine is defended not only by the President and the Commander-in-Chief, not only by state structures, but by millions of Ukrainians. Someone is on the front line, someone is working on the Ukrainian front. They risk encountering explosive devices or being targeted by a missile. You have to be a hero to sow in the fields of Ukraine, and now to reap what you have sown.
You have to be a hero to give birth to children in wartime. Father and mother, who give life, are patriots! They understand that fatherhood and motherhood also have a patriotic dimension. When someone runs away from those burdens, does not give a future to the Ukrainian people, he has lost something somewhere.
Let's remember our volunteers, who, without any hope of compensation or words of thanks, at the behest of their own conscience, work day and night to help refugees, to clothe those who lack clothes, to evacuate those who are in danger of death, to provide the Ukrainian army with all that that it needs.
There is a whole mechanism of existence of Ukrainian society. However, the soul of this body that wields is love and Christian patriotism.
08/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Svyatopolk, who was called
"wretched", killed his brothers in the struggle for the Kyiv throne. The
Russian president publicly ridiculed the feat of these first Kyiv martyrs. And
today, unfortunately, it is Russia that is once again committing the sin of the
wretched Svyatopolk
(…)
I watch with emotion how many of our boys
attack the military commissariats and are offended when they are not taken into
the army, they feel guilty for being in the rear instead of at the front.
Thanks to all of you, patriots of Ukraine! Be where the Lord God has called
you! And bring Ukraine's victory over the enemy closer every day
06/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
In just one day, Russia launched eight cruise
missiles at Ukraine for a total of $100,000,000. We see how it becomes more and
more difficult for the occupiers to explain to themselves and their own people
why this senseless war is being waged. We see how much money the aggressor
invests in destruction and death. Instead of developing
their patriotism by investing in the well-being and better life of Russians,
they cause great trouble, harm, and destruction to everyone: both to Russians
in Russia and to the Ukrainian people.
04/08/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
The world must condemn what happened yesterday
to the Ukrainian prisoners of war as a special manifestation of
inadmissibility, savagery and cruelty. Yesterday we saw footage of the
terrible torture of a Ukrainian soldier, and later the news arrived that more
than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in the town of Olenivka in
Donbas. With what cynicism it was done! With what insidiousness, and therefore
an attempt to frighten the world and demonstrate these crimes, all this was
done! In the name of God, we condemn these atrocities, these crimes against
humanity.
I appeal to each of you to condemn the crimes
of the Russians! If we, as people, do not distance ourselves today and say a
sharp "no" to atrocities and torture, then tomorrow such behaviour,
unfortunately, may spread to the whole world.
30/07/2022 (Source)
From a television interview
In no case do I agree when someone talks about
the danger of patriotism. Even more, we must teach our faithful to be patriots.
Because how else can we hope that Ukrainians will respect the achievements of
human civilization, the genius of the universal human spirit, if they do not
love their own?!
(…)
That is, a patriot is not one who shoots,
but one who loves. This should always come first. And the Church teaches
its faithful to love. The Christian community is a school of love that explains
that love is not about what I like. Love means giving yourself to someone in
need. To give as much as I can, even all of myself.
(…)
Whoever does not have this sincere love for his
Christian land, for his mother, for his children, for his home, he will never
be happy anywhere, even on the whole infinite earth. This is the essence of
Christian patriotism.
(…)
You have to be a hero to sow and reap what you
sow today in the fields of Ukraine. You have to be a hero to give birth to
children in wartime. That is, the father and mother who give a new life are
patriots who understand that the true vocation to fatherhood and motherhood
also has a patriotic dimension. When someone runs away from those burdens, does
not give a future to the Ukrainian people, then somewhere along the way
something got lost.
29/07/2022 (Source)
Daily video address
Today, let's rediscover the value of Ukrainian
statehood for our national existence. Our State is for us a
matter of life or death. And we know that life will win. The
state will be protected and strengthened. And life on the God-given earth
will blossom and develop.
28/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from interview with Il Foglio
Ukraine has been a victim of Russian aggression
since 2014, but since February 24, we, Ukrainians, have understood that this is
not just a war between one country against another, and even less a simple
"military operation".
Visiting Ukrainian cities that were occupied by
the Russian army and then liberated, I saw the tragedy of mass graves – mass
burials of civilians, I heard the testimonies of victims of rape by Russian
soldiers, we were shocked by the terrible picture of executed people, left
lying on the streets of our cities. Unfortunately, these are not isolated
cases, but systematic actions of Putin's army against innocent
Ukrainians. Mass graves were found in Bucha, Mariupol, Makarov, and
perhaps others will be found; there were many cases of torture of
civilians, including children; so far, about 300 minors have died at the
hands of the Russian military. Just think that near the ancient city of
Chernihiv, in the ancient Orthodox church, which is considered a historical
heritage, the Russian army arranged a torture chamber! Residents of the
villages of Yagidne and Lukashivka were tortured inside the church.
Today, it is becoming more and more obvious, at
least for us in Ukraine, that Russia's war against Ukraine has a clear
ideological structure, which is called the ideology of the "Russian
world".
I would like to turn to the report of Timothy
Snyder, a well-known researcher of the Shoah in the territory of the former
Soviet Union. It was he who immediately reacted to the publication on the
Russian website "Ria Novosti" of a document explaining the motives
and orders given to Russian soldiers to carry out their mission in
Ukraine. The comment entitled "What Russia should do with
Ukraine" was written by Timofiy Sergeitsev, who explains what exactly
Moscow means by denazification – one of the goals of the war in Ukraine
declared by Putin. I invite the European community to carefully read
this text in order to understand what the ideology of the "Russian
world" consists of.
Timothy Snyder called it Russia 's genocide handbook . He
writes: "This Russian manual is one of the most frankly genocidal
documents I have ever seen."
In addition, I would like to note that many
famous theologians of the Orthodox Churches of the world have condemned the
ideology of the "Russian world" as a heresy of ethnophyletic
religious fundamentalism, which has a totalitarian nature. Many prominent politicians
identify it as a form of radical nationalism that seeks to spread throughout
the world. The ideology of the "Russian world" denies the right
of the Ukrainian people to exist, as the ideology of Nazi Germany once denied
the Jewish people. In this way, a new authoritarian ideology is proposed,
which was born in Russia, but thanks to massive propaganda, it will find its
followers in the West, surprisingly.
I can only testify that the occupiers are
committing war crimes by carefully following every letter of these
instructions. All this is accompanied by unprecedented cruelty towards the
civilian population.
The history of the Ukrainian people is a part
of European history, we are a European people, which in recent history has once
again confirmed its choice in favour of the principles and ideals of the
European community. Unfortunately, today in Russia we are witnessing a
synthesis of Soviet and imperial mentalities. And Ukraine today is a
victim of this perverse reconstruction of the borders of "great
Russia".
In Russia, they always want to present
Ukrainian society as being under the influence of the immoral West. This
is how intolerance towards everything "not ours" is born, provoking
and justifying violence to destroy all the "infected". Currently, the image of this
"collective West" is being projected onto Ukraine, which seems to
have to be fought. To revive the memory of the historical enemy to be
fought, the word "Nazism" is used, which has lost its original
meaning and today is usually applied to everything "Western" that is
present in the identity of the people. That is why a Ukrainian is called a
heretic Nazi.
It is becoming more and more obvious that
Russia has entered into a cultural conflict not only with Ukraine, but also
with everything that we define as Western civilization. The process of
zombification of the Russian population by the Kremlin regime gave rise to a
very dangerous anthropological type of society. Imagine: mass graves in
Ukraine become a reason for the joy of many people in Russia; no sympathy,
no thought about the causes of this absurd war. Unfortunately, even at the
highest level of the Russian Orthodox Church... Moreover, we hear the Christian
justification of the Russian war against Ukraine and the glorification of war
crimes and the ideology of violence.
(…)
In this case, as a Church, we must also declare
"zero tolerance" for the criminal. I believe that we should stop
talking about the conflict, we should talk about war crimes in Ukraine
instead. We must stop trying to understand or protect the interests of the
aggressor or to be mediators between the interests of the aggressor and the
victim, therefore the reality and the truth, the objective truth of the events
taking place in Ukraine. Zero tolerance for violence! If the
interests of a state lead to war and condemn to death a people with a
population of more than 40 million, then this is no longer an interest, but a
crime. No
reason can justify or explain this aggression in modern civilized
society.
A crime against humanity is taking place in
Ukraine: there is a cruel criminal and there is an innocent
victim. Therefore, it is also important to find the right terms to
describe everything that is happening in Ukraine. After all, even the word
"war" in its traditional sense is no longer able to describe this
tragedy. If anyone doubts, I invite you to come to Ukraine and see it with
your own eyes.
(…)
Faith in the resurrection and love for freedom
have always been the strength of our people, which protected them from despair,
encouraged them to stand up and move forward. There is another folk
saying: "They wanted to bury us forever, but it turned out that we
are the seeds that give new life." Perhaps even now our people are
fighting, standing up after so many waves of genocide precisely because the
Lord resurrects us.
(…)
War is not a game. It seems to me that
sometimes computer games are associated with the word "war" in the
West. Unfortunately, those who plan wars have never experienced what war
really is. After all, observing the realities of the war in Ukraine, we
are faced with total destruction. Entire cities and villages became
ghosts. And mass graves, which have no end. The question arises: is
it possible to survive in such conditions? Does the world want to survive
or fight? And one more thing: we know that one day of war costs Russia
four hundred million dollars. Think about it, just one day. Who, by
what diabolical logic, invests in death? What if we could use this money
to build, save human lives, and create a better future in Russia
itself? If these funds were to be invested in improving the living
conditions of millions of citizens of this country? Instead of spending
them so easily on killings... This means that war is always a
crime, always madness, clouding of the mind. The more violent it
becomes, the more obvious it becomes. The war in Ukraine is a crime
against humanity.
(…)
We have all changed. Perhaps not everyone
has yet understood that the world that existed until February 24 of this year
is no more. Not Russia, not Ukraine, not Europe, not other
countries. In one "click" we changed forever. And if relations between
people change, then, obviously, relations between man and society, man and any
community will change, and relations between Churches will also change. If
we talk about the relations between the Churches in Ukraine, I must say that
they have really improved, because we have united like never before in the name
of protecting human life. We see that all differences, even some private
selfish interests (which are sometimes cherished even by the Church) have now
receded into the background, the existential question is now in the first place
- how to survive together with our people. That's why we cooperate. Perhaps
the ecumenical, doctrinal level, reflection will come later, which will be
born from existential experience, but when it comes to organizing, for example,
a green corridor to evacuate and save the lives of people who are in immediate
danger of death, then everyone unites: Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants,
Muslims, Jews. We all cooperate to save ourselves and to save others.
27/07/2022 (Source)
Daily vídeo address
Mykolaiv suffered a massive rocket attack that
night. And yesterday we were shaken by an unprecedented disaster in Kharkiv,
in particular, the picture of a father kneeling on the street of the city,
holding the hand of his lifeless 13-year-old son, and praying. Many
people asked themselves: God, why? How much more?
21/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
from sermon
Free
Ukraine, is torment for all those who want to enslave their people first of
all, to put shackles on them. If Ukraine is free, then other nations of the
former Soviet Union must be free as well.
This is
a spiritual struggle, an invisible struggle between good and evil. But this
phrase is not a good metaphor. We see that God is calling us to freedom. And he
gives it to us as he gave freedom to the Church and the people when He broke
the prison of the nations – the Soviet Union and all those who were in slavery,
in the shackles of that communist ideology, he called us to a free life worthy
of human dignity, he called us to freedom.
(…)
Ukrainians
said: we will never be slaves again, because we are responding to the call to
freedom of our Saviour. We want to be free people.
(…)
We
cannot be half human, nor can we be half free, because freedom is rooted in
human nature. We see that wherever Russian weapons reach, blood is shed,
innocent people are killed there. Therefore, this war turns into a complete war
crime. But Ukrainians will never go back to live in graves.
(…)
Today we
have come to the prayer room to pray for the victory of Ukraine, for the
victory that will be the liberation of our land, the liberation of every person
from the power of the possession of an evil spirit. We sacrifice everything so
that our people will never return to slavery.
17/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
It is
difficult to call what is happening in Ukraine a war. These are, naturally,
continuous war crimes that do not stop either day or night.
But we
are now here, in Zarvanytsia, and we will pray. Our prayer is for the victory
of Ukraine, for our Ukrainian army, for our Ukrainian government. We will ask
the Mother of God for the gift of just and true peace for the Ukrainian land,
so that the thief will leave our house, so that the killings will stop, so that
blood will no longer be sprinkled on the black soil of the Ukrainian land, our
Motherland,
17/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
We see
how the pride of one dictator, in whose hands there are many means of
destroying human life, can be a destructive force that tempts and leads the
entire nation to sinful paths. This pride is the cause of murder, war,
destruction and death of man.
16/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
We
know that more than seven million Ukrainians have already
left Ukraine. And this process of demographic exsanguination of our Motherland,
unfortunately, continues. But Ukraine stands. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine is
praying. Ukraine learns to win and wins!
(…)
The
enemy is not at war with any state structures and not only with the Armed
Forces of Ukraine. He has clear genocidal intentions and is fighting the
Ukrainian people, putting the lives of Ukraine's 40 million population at
stake.
14/07/2022
(Source)
Daily
video address
We see
that some agree with the voice of Pope Francis, and some disagree, but everyone
hears and notices him. Let us pray that among us, Christians of the new age, he
will be the first to convert and, after his personal conversion, confirm the
faith of his fellow believers. We pray that he will come to Ukraine as soon as
possible to stand on the side of the suffering Ukrainian people.
12/07/2022
(Source)
Address to Ukrainian refugees in Poland
We ask our saints: you, the sons and daughters of this people, pray
today for our Church, for our people, who are bleeding.
Pray for the Ukrainian State, which today shelters Europe with its
breast from the war that is destroying Ukraine.
Pray that evil does not spread, that Ukraine itself, with its holiness,
strength, ability to sacrifice even life in faith for the sake of God's
truth and the salvation of man,
will be a shield that will cover the whole world from the apocalyptic
beast that opens its mouth on modern man. All the saints of the Ukrainian people, pray to God for us
sinners.
09/07/2022 (Source)
Opening sermon at the synod of Bishops in Przemyśl
Because
we, as the Church, found ourselves on the front line of the
information war. At one time, Pope Francis remarked that every great war is connected
with a great lie. Therefore, the voice of our Church, which testifies to
the truth, by the power of the prophet John, is today called to carry
out a prophetic mission in the desert of the modern world. That is why
it is so important for us to experience this Synod, to feel the
fraternal unity of our global Church, which unites all world Ukrainians
in Ukraine and in the settlements!
Because it is our Church that becomes a powerful voice to the world
public, which once did not hear well and did not know who Ukrainians
are, what they fight for, live and die for. Perhaps it is precisely
our Church that should say that in today's cruel circumstances of
military calamity.
07/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of Sermon on the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Christ says: "And when your eye is evil, your whole body will be in
darkness" (Mt. 6, 23). Our Kobzar says about such an evil and lustful
eye: "He is peering over the edge of the world with his restless eye to
see if there is a country to conquer and take home with him" (Poem
"Dream").
It is the eye of the occupier who comes to our land today and looks
at all of us only from the point of view of what can be taken from us,
enslaving and robbing us of all that we are. This is what it means to
serve mammon. This god takes away man's freedom, instead instils in him fear of the
coming day and, like a tempter, says: take today, because tomorrow may
not be.
03/07/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We have already mentioned more than once that
this war against Ukraine has a hybrid nature, that is, it is waged
not only through weapons, bombs, missiles, artillery, tanks on the
battlefield, but also through disinformation, lies, which the enemy
spreads to the whole world. And we, as Christians, have to fulfil our duty here: not to listen to
the voice of the tempter, not to enter into a dialogue with him, but
instead to testify to the truth.
(…)
Pope Francis says that a great war is always connected with a great
lie, and the first victim of war is always the truth. Therefore, no
matter where we live, in Ukraine or in other countries of the world,
no matter what we do, no matter what mission we perform, let us always
listen to the voice of truth, the truth that sounds through the testimony of eyewitnesses, through
the voice of the Church. Let's listen to God's truth, which speaks to us
through the word of the Holy Scriptures, and with God's word, like a
double-edged sword, we will defeat the attacks and temptations of the
devil.
02/07/2022 (Source)
Interview with Open Church
During the war, all masks were torn off, all traitors were
unmasked. The whole depth of the heart of every good
person was revealed.
Then it was really possible to see who loves Ukraine, whether it is
only good slogans, good words, only political ambitions or true love for
our Motherland, which we live by every day.
We not only believe in God's mercy, but are also its bearers.
Therefore,
if someone calls himself a Christian, but during the war he closes
his heart to people in need, he is not moved by the footage of broken
homes, wounded people, millions of refugees, then his Christianity is
superficial, inauthentic.
01/07/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We see that Russian society is being tempted, that young men are
being recruited to go and kill people in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine
is not just justified, particularly for religious reasons, but
presented as a good opportunity to earn something, even to steal
something and bring it home.
(…)
We ask, Lord, help us with Your word, Your power to defeat the devil
and his temptations! Help us to overcome the suggestions of the enemy,
with which He wants to frighten, paralyze the will of all those who
defend the dignity of man, his right to life and existence! God, bless
the defenders of Ukraine, its children, all those who resist evil!
01/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
The enemy mercilessly fires on all parts of Ukraine, where it can reach
with its weapons. They are shelling towns and villages, including border
towns, in Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions. The so-called missile
terrorism continues.
The Russians are ruthlessly destroying agricultural, urban, and state
infrastructure with rocket fire. In particular, a huge grain warehouse
in Dnipropetrovsk region was destroyed yesterday. Everything that can
save Ukraine, especially in winter, must be destroyed. At the same time, the Russians are brutally cracking down on anyone
who wants to defend the Motherland
30/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
But through the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is faith we see that
the Lord God not only sees Ukraine and has it in his original plan,
but has prepared for us a special mission in the modern world, in the
modern Church, in relation to man in the third millennium.
Yesterday, Ukraine experienced perhaps the largest missile strike in
its history by Russia. Russian cruise missiles flew to Kyiv, Chernihiv,
Cherkasy, Odesa and Mykolayiv regions. The city of Kharkiv and Sumy
region came under fire ... But Ukraine is fighting and thanking God and
the Armed Forces of Ukraine that we have survived to this morning and
can see the light of day.
27/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon
I think it is obvious to all of us today that
He sees Ukraine in his providence not only as we see it now,
especially on this dramatic Kyiv morning – sick, wounded and crying.
He sees Ukraine and us in it as we are bound to become – he sees in
its victory over evil and an unjust attacker - a prosperous and free
European state!
It is obvious to all of us today that
war is a denial of God's plan and God's wisdom. War is the greatest
crime against God. War is the greatest madness, the greatest stupidity
a person can commit. We feel that Ukraine's enemies are those who do
not allow it to fulfil its sacred vocation. That is why their insane
plans, which rebel against God's plan and vocation for our people, are
doomed to shameful failure.
Celebrating today the Day of the Laity in our Church, we ask: God, call
us to follow us from the hell on earth in which we are today! We know
that where You are, there is peace and security. We know that only those
who fulfil their life vocation feel happy. Teach us to fulfil our family
and professional duties in a Christian way, to fulfil our civic duty to
protect and build the Motherland!
27/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon
Consecrating this church, we see that in this event,
in these sacraments that took place before our eyes, there is a great
sign of hope for the Ukrainian people. For when the enemy kills, takes
away life, in this temple God himself comes to revive, sanctify and
give eternal life
as it happened in Nazareth, at the moment of the Good News, when a new
life began, Divine and human, by power and action. Of the Holy Spirit in
the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Today,
when the enemy on our land is destroying everything, destroying, when
he is waging a war of "scorched earth", we are building. You have to
have a lot of faith to build temples during the war.
We need to have a look into the future, which breaks through the clouds
that have thickened over us and shows a ray of hope for the revival of
Ukraine after the war.
23/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on All Saints Sunday
Today we celebrate International Father's Day and Medical Day. I would
like to take this opportunity to sincerely congratulate parents who
instill in their children a desire for holiness and Christian and human
perfection. We especially pray for those dads who, with weapons in their hands
and the cost of their own lives, protect Ukraine from the Russian
occupier, giving their children a true example of true love. Thanks also to our doctors who save lives in the dramatic
circumstances of the war. May all the saints accompany you in the
conscientious performance of your professional duties, and may the Lord
himself guide you with his hand and complement your medical art and your
talent with the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit!
19/06/2022 (Source)
Words during visit to Poltava
By his love for us, the Lord God quenches human malice and sin. He
transmits the same power to Christians. And when we forgive our
offender, we defeat him. By forgiving, we defeat the evil that the offender has done to us. If
we respond with evil to evil, then it only increases. And man himself will never be able to overcome evil as such. It's not
in our power.
Even today, when we see the enemy raping, killing, destroying, let our
enemy not defeat himself on the battlefield of our hearts. If we can
destroy the evil that the enemy carries in our hearts, we will defeat
him. Because victory requires winners who are morally superior to our
attackers.
17/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
This gift [of the Holy Spirit] is extremely necessary for those who
have a special responsibility, perform important service in the Church,
the state and society. In my opinion, the mind as a gift of the Holy
Spirit is very much needed by those who are trying to understand the
causes and consequences of this full-scale Russian aggression. Because
we see that today the whole world is trying to deceive, to pretend that
what is desired is real. We see and know, experiencing the war on our own skin, that Russia's
aggression against Ukraine is not provoked by anything. Anyone who
thinks that some external cause has provoked military aggression in
Russia is either a prisoner of Russian propaganda or is simply
deliberately deceiving the world.
Unfortunately, that part of the post-Soviet space that is today in the
territory of the Russian Federation has its deep flaws and diseases
since Soviet times. This post-Soviet revanchism, which today has emerged in the new face of
extreme Russian nationalism, in the form of the ideology of the
Russian measure, has clearly acquired genocidal features. And Ukraine
is his first victim.
That is why it is so important to understand the causes and consequences of this war. Unfortunately, the causes of
this war lie in Russia itself, inside it. The Russian aggressor is trying to solve its internal problems with the
help of external aggression. He projects his illnesses on others and
blames the whole world for them.
Today we pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit for politicians, diplomats,
church and religious figures, so that the Lord God gives them the ability to see the causes and
consequences of things, the depth of reality and the ability to
distinguish truth from falsehood and falsehood.
15/06/2022 (Source)
Today we have to celebrate Pentecost in the circumstances of war. We
know that the war has "nullified" all human relations. We all became
different. We are afraid of the unknown future, because we do not know
where our mad enemy will direct its lethal missiles tomorrow. Many parents have really serious difficulties in overcoming
their children's anxiety.
We need the Comforter so much in these military circumstances!
Therefore, today we will kneel and call on the Holy Spirit as the only
Comforter in unhappy circumstances and tell Him today: come and dwell
in us!
During the war, we all feel that we have become a wounded people, some physically, some psychologically and even spiritually… Today
we are not fully aware of the wounds that Ukraine receives every day.
Where will we get the medicine, the balm that will heal the wounds,
will give us the strength to rebuild what the enemy shamelessly
destroys every day? Therefore, we call on the Holy Spirit, whom the
Son of Heavenly Father sends us today, and say to Him, "Come and dwell
in us!" – because we know that He alone is the balm that can heal all
our pains and wounds.
We ask today: “Holy Spirit, come, renew us, give us strength, teach us to be
bearers of truth! You are the Spirit of truth, so give us the
strength to bear witness to the truth about You and Ukraine in its
pain! Give us the strength to tell the truth, so that, in the words of the great Kobzar, "the whole world will
hear what was going on in Ukraine, why it died, why the Cossack glory
spread all over the world!" (To Osnovyanenko, 1839) ".
May the Holy Spirit make us all spiritual disciples of our Saviour.
May it descend into our hearts, write in it God's law of the truth of
life, melt our petrification. May every place we live be enlivened and
sanctified. May all that we touch with our thoughts, dreams, hands and
deeds be revived. May the Holy Spirit descend on Ukraine today, tomorrow our tears
and renew the face of the Ukrainian land. Amen.
14/06/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
It is becoming clear that the war that Russia has started against Ukraine is colonial in
nature. They are once again trying to turn Ukraine into a colony,
almost in the heart of Europe. This colonial war is accompanied by
murders, rapes, robberies and, very sadly, Russia exports and sells
on the international market everything that can be looted in
Ukraine.
Today I appeal to the world community, to the conscience of people
around the world: do not buy loot in Ukraine! Because otherwise you become
accomplices in the crimes committed by the occupiers when they came
to Ukrainian soil.
09/06/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Ukraine is working, a sowing campaign has taken place. Our people are
making every effort to feed Ukrainian bread to the sons and daughters
of Ukraine, as well as to all those in need in the world. However, we
already see that due to the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports, it is
impossible to export Ukrainian grain. The global food crisis is
already approaching and it is already beginning to worry the leaders
of various states.
We express our gratitude to Pope Francis for such a moving call not
to use food grains as a weapon, because today the most vulnerable
people suffer from it, not only in Ukraine but all over the world.
(…)
On this day, we want to pray for the Ukrainian government and all
those in the world to whom the peoples and society have entrusted the
leadership of states. Because we see that the worst sin of the
government is war. When the government provokes wars, it shows its unbelief, rebels
against the very plan of God for man, who is always peace.
Authorities who do not care about the justice of life between
people, their citizens and peoples make human life as such
impossible. If the authorities commit crimes that are not initially
visible, it leads to internal corruption of the state. We are
talking about the sin of corruption, which erodes any institutions,
even international ones.
07/06/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We also pray for our enemies, that they do not dry up their souls
with crimes against the Ukrainian people. We pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit for all people.
(…)
Today we see that in Ukraine some are bearing fruit, and others are
coming to show themselves as dry branches on this grape, although they
call themselves Christians. It is a great scandal for the whole world
that in Ukraine some Christians who are trying to appropriate the
tradition of the Kyiv Church come from Moscow to kill other Christians
in the Kyiv lands.
06/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of interview on the Sunday of the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea
Jesus prays to the Father: "Now I come to you, and I say this when I
am in the world, that they may have my joy in them" (Jn
17:13). Today, when Ukraine is crying, it is very difficult for us to talk
about joy, because we are witnessing something completely different.
We are constantly experiencing the pain and grief of loss. We lose
our own and our own, sometimes even ourselves… However, in order for you to understand the fullness of joy that
Jesus Christ speaks in his Hierarch's Prayer, I will tell you the
story of a believing woman, a refugee from Donbass, told to me by my
father from Kropyvnytskyi. This lady said that when she gets to
another city, she first of all seeks her Church, because she knows
that there are her own and she will not perish among her own. She was
very happy when she found her family, her community, her Church. Of
course, they helped her with everything they could.
(…)
True joy is finding your own. That woman lost everything: her home,
relatives, the world in which she still lived. But she was happy,
because she understood that she would gradually be able to find
everything among her own. And this joy that Jesus Christ is talking
about today is due to the fact that she managed to find her God in a
foreign city.
In these circumstances, it is very important for us to understand who is our own and who is someone else's. Where is the opportunity to know the true living God, where are those who know Him? It is important to reveal the community of Christ's Church in the life of our people. Because many foreigners come who pretend to be their own. They say: we are your brothers, your government and your fatherland ... Even in the church field they pretend to be their Church, but they behave like strangers who steal, kill, rape, burn even holy temples, steal everything from grain to things that are found in our homes.
06/06/2022 (Source)
Daily Video Message
Ukrainians have been defending their land for a hundred
days. For a hundred days, Ukrainians have been holding back the Russian
invasion, which exceeds with all resources what we can oppose. At
the same time, we are experiencing a hundred days of great
manifestation of God's presence among us.
03/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from Sermon on the Feast of the Ascension
What does it mean to win? This is much more than deoccupying the
territories that the enemy has taken away from us today. This is much
more than restoring the integrity of our state. Our mission is to defeat the spirit of war and all those who serve
it, who are enemies of God's plan for Ukraine, our Church and our
people. We say today that the war in Ukraine is a struggle between
good and evil. Perhaps this is our historical mission – to once again close Europe to the chest from the Asian
invader, as it was here in Kyiv, during the reign of Khan Batu and
other hordes who came to our land to take our lives and wipe the Kyiv
state from the face of the earth. To pray for victory means to pray for the fulfilment of the
historical mission of our people in the family of the peoples of
Europe.
Today we pray that each of us may fulfil our life's mission in a
Christian way. Because the Lord God gives us a task that no one will
do for us. If we run away from it, do not want to fulfil it, there
will be emptiness. Each of us in our place today prays, defends the
Motherland and is a witness to faith in God and in His saved plan for
our people. That is why we pray and say on the graves of our fallen
heroes that heroes do not die. It is the Lord God who revives them,
makes them partakers of his Paschal sacrament. He is the key to their
life and resurrection even after death.
Today we ask: Lord, clothe us with power from on high! Thy Holy
Spirit descended on us, as You did for Your apostles. For it is not by
human power, but by God's power that victory over evil comes and God's
plan is fulfilled. Come upon us, Holy Spirit, so that we may defeat the enemy,
celebrate Your victory over evil! Grant us Your peace for our
Motherland! And when the Lord sends us today everywhere, as the
apostles and early Christians once did, from Kiev, the new
Jerusalem, to all continents to the ends of the earth, let us make all your
people disciples there and lead them to Baptism in them. ' I am the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
03/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview with Ukrinform
Q. A large number of your faithful were very offended by the Pope.
Offended by the Way of the Cross, the common cross of a Russian and a
Ukrainian, offended by his intentions to see Kirill, because,
obviously, it makes no sense. Don't you think that this behaviour of
the Holy Father has greatly affected the authority of the Vatican?
A. In the period you mention, I was in two realities. On the one
hand, I personally communicated with the Holy Father, and on the other
hand, I tried to read, listen to everything that was said and written
about him, how his thoughts or intentions were broadcast through the
media to the general public. And there is a big difference between one
reality and another.
The Holy Father personally as a person, as a Christian, as the Head
of the Church, is very sympathetic to Ukraine. Not only does he
understand what is going on, but he is even ready for certain
unconventional, unrelated protocols of actions and gestures in order
to stop the war. And if someone said that Pope Francis was pro-Moscow,
it would offend him personally, because sometimes such thoughts are heard about him. Like, we don't
understand you, such gestures or statements for Ukrainians look like
direct or indirect support of the aggressor.
The Holy Father is very hurt to personally perceive this type of
interpretation of his words or gestures. On the other hand, we feel
that the war in Ukraine is being waged in very different forms and on
different fronts, the information war is part of Russian aggression
and, in my opinion, the Holy See was involved by Russia in the
information war, perhaps even to the end. without realizing it, he may
not have been ready for it until the end. Here are some examples. Precisely in order to protest against
Russian aggression, literally on the second or third day the Pope personally went to the Russian ambassador, this gesture
was very unconventional, but who was the first to announce this
visit? Moscow. And, obviously, informing about it, they put their
content into this message and interpreted it in their own way. The
fact is that the Pope went to protest against the war in Ukraine,
- Was it a meeting with the ambassador to protest?
- Yes. But since there was no timely communication from the Holy See,
we were the first to learn about this gesture through the Russian
media, and it was manipulated in favour of Russia.
The second example. The Holy Father, looking for various ways to express his protest,
disagreement with Russian aggression, had a televised conversation
with Patriarch Kirill, where he clearly told him that we should be
pastors, we cannot be altar boys of power. But who was the first to
report this conversation? Patriarch Kirill. And the very fact of the
conversation was interpreted as support for the Moscow Patriarchate,
which is an absolute lie.
And the third example, for me quite eloquent. We have all heard that the Pope is ready to go to Moscow. But only
the first part of the phrase was conveyed, and the next phrase was
as follows: because he is ready to do anything to stop Russian
aggression. Instead, only the first part of the phrase was
published, and the other was silenced.
Indeed, we feel that there are some failures on the part of the Holy See on the information front, that it directly lacks a spokesperson who, in case of any doubts or misunderstandings, including various media manipulations, could refute Moscow's lies. But I think that step by step the whole truth shines in all its fullness, and this untruth will disappear like our fortune tellers, like dew in the sun.
01/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the Sermon during the 16th pilgrimage to
Vyshorod
[Mary’s] eyes are now weeping over the sons and daughters of Ukraine, as in the sad year of 1155, because today we are being killed, destroyed and burned, a war is
being waged against us, which is called the "war of the scorched
earth." Maria cries over those who are forced to leave their homes,
their land, and once again goes with those whom the Russian invader
forcibly takes to Russia. We know that there are already over a
million prisoners who were forcibly removed from Ukrainian soil and
then forced to kill Ukrainian citizens with weapons in their hands,
carrying out the so-called mobilization in the occupied lands.
Today our Mother, who sees the truth and whose eyes weep with
Ukrainian mothers, sons and daughters of Ukraine, is with us. Sometimes it is so important for us in life to have someone who
understands us. When we are in pain, we look for such a person. The
son is looking for a mother, the daughter is looking for a father, the
husband is looking for his wife, the wife misses her husband, who is
defending Ukraine. How we need someone who would understand us without
words, someone who does not need to explain anything, who looks deeper
than the human eye sees! When the world does not want to understand, see and hear the pain
and cries of Ukraine, we really need the presence of the Mother of
God among us! And here, in Vyshhorod, we feel that the Blessed Virgin Mary
sees, knows and understands everything.
By a strange craft, the northern Kyiv region is today a place where
many people from all over the world see. Having visited here, on the banks of the Dnieper, foreign
presidents, prime ministers and church dignitaries – who heard about
the war in Ukraine but were blinded by Moscow propaganda – could see
mass graves and burned towns and villages, mountains of broken
Russian equipment and hear horrible testimonies of the atrocities of
the occupiers. They say that completely different people come back
from here, those who saw them - they come back sighted!
It is important that through this pilgrimage we return home to other
people, that we live by our faith, be children of light, and never
again become slaves to the darkness of sin. Let us return with hope,
with faith, with the feeling that the Lord God is with us in our pains
and sorrows and that He will lead us to victory! Let us return to
persevere and say to the world, as the first apostles once said: “What
we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked
at, and what our hands have touched, to you is eternal life, that your
joy may be full ”(1 Jn 1: 1-4). This is the meaning of the Easter
sermon of the Church.
Today we ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first sighted, the first,
who was not subject to original sin, to help modern humanity to see.
We ask you to help everyone see the crimes of the Russian enemy and at
the same time the heroism, strength and steadfastness of our people,
and to help us see the victory of Ukraine.
31/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from daily video message
Those crimes that are being committed in Ukraine today are worthy of
unanimous condemnation. Therefore, anyone who tries to justify, support or praise the actions of Russian
criminals at the international, economic or even ecclesiastical level
is in danger of being guilty of this very sin we are pondering today
(…)
God, we entrust to your hands the cities and villages of the
Ukrainian Donbass. In Your hands we entrust the life and health of the defenders of
Ukraine. In Your hands we entrust the lives of all those who found
themselves in the occupied territories and no longer hope to receive
help from anyone. God bless Ukraine!
28/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
[In reference to a speech in which Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow,
exalted Russian fighters in Ukraine as heroes of orthodoxy] The speaker did not clearly indicate what examples he meant, but
today - when we hear the cries and groans of crippled souls in
Ukraine, the voice of the blood of innocent murdered women, children
and men calling from earth to God - from the heart of ordinary
people a cry breaks out: God, save and preserve all people from such
an Orthodox culture!
24/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the sermon on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
When I visited this community less than two months ago, while Kyiv
was experiencing the most difficult moments of the siege by the
Russian army, it was nice to see that life and prayer were not
interrupted here. I remember how Father Igor and I went down to the
crypts of this cathedral and prayed at the tomb of Prince Askold,
hearing the sounds of cannonade around Kyiv. We felt a sip of the
living water spoken of today in the Gospels.
On the same day, I visited the mayor of Kyiv. We talked about the
role and place of Christ's Church even during the Russian siege of the
capital. And he told me: “Today, more than bread and clothes, we need
God's word, which inspires, strengthens, eliminates fear, gives
strength to God-lovers, quenches our thirst for eternity. Who has
access to this living water is invincible."
Therefore, today, remembering our ancient 1140-year and recent
30-year history, we look to our future and pray for the victory of
Ukraine, which will finally bring peace to our long-suffering people.
We ask our Saviour: give us all a sip of this living water so that we
will not be thirsty forever, teach us here in Kyiv to worship our
Heavenly Father in Spirit and Truth!
People all over the world admire the courage and faith of Ukrainians.
I was asked: do you have any hope in Ukraine? I said we have, because
we are Christians. And today, from this source of the Kyiv Mountains, we can and
must quench the thirst for God of modern man in different parts of the
world. Together with Prince Askold and our Heroes we pray: God, great,
one, save Ukraine for us!
23/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Yesterday we heard from the President of Ukraine that, unfortunately,
50 to 100 Ukrainian servicemen die at the front every day, and the
number of civilians killed is ten times higher. So, every day Ukraine receives a new heavenly hundred.
(…)
Today, Ukrainians, like no one else, see that war is a terrible crime, and
by committing it, a person loses God's image and human dignity.
23/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
The first on the list of other people's sins is to command to sin, to
incite to sin. We see that during the war the enemy gives many
criminal orders. He who commands another to kill, to rape, becomes a
murderer and a rapist. He who sends an army to kill people in another
country becomes personally responsible for the evil he has ordered
others to do.
21/05/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We feel more and more that Ukraine is able to withstand this difficult,
uneven battle. We feel that the Lord God is blessing our army because we are praying for
it. He supports those who know how to love the Motherland and their loved
ones.
18/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from of speech to the participants of the National Conference on Health in Italy
I was in the occupied cities and saw what the Russian soldiers left behind:
now they are destroyed ghost towns, the bodies of innocent people were
scattered in the streets, we prayed at mass graves where hundreds of people
lay with their hands tied and shot heads. Among them are small children,
women, the elderly. I never thought I would see such a thing.
(…)
I am constantly in touch with our priests and bishops, who remain
faithful. Our Church, together with our Roman Catholic brothers, is a real field
hospital in these regions. We are doing everything possible to send food and drinking water
there.
(…)
One must have faith and trust completely in God, who comes to the rescue
through the solidarity of many people. I want to thank the Italian Church
for accepting many refugees. Help them learn your beautiful language, and
they will help you discover the richness of the faith of our people. We want
to share with you not only our pain, but also the richness of our hope.
16/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on Fourth Sunday after Easter
When I saw the mass graves in which the Russians dumped hundreds of
murdered people, the army that is advancing on us and many times
outnumbers the Ukrainian army, when we understand that Ukraine began to
fight, as David once did with Goliath, in the first and during the most
difficult moments of the war, we said to ourselves: “We have no one”.
Nobody believed that Ukraine would survive. Even our so-called Western
partners predicted that Kyiv would be taken in three days. But in three
days Christ rose from the dead. And in those days when we felt that all
of us had left, at one point Kyiv turned into a dead city. A lot of
people left. Embassies of foreign countries were evacuated, shops were
closed, even food could not be found.
Then we cried out to heaven, “We have no one, God! We need Your mercy!”
As a result, our capital turned into a great baptismal font, as in the
time of Prince Volodymyr Kyiv, where our people received new life, where
they were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. And at the
beginning of this war, our Kyiv became the center of resistance. The
Lord was with us.
May the merciful Lord bless all those who are waiting for God's mercy.
Because this is a story about each of us. We are all sinners who, being in
the sea of our own sin, our own weaknesses, cannot heal ourselves. We
need a person who would bring us God. Everyone who does mercy to another
person becomes a messenger of God. Every time we show mercy to the victims
of war, refugees, displaced persons, those who have lost relatives,
housing, property, and a person who feels God's mercy on himself, he says:
"God himself sent this man, God has not forgotten me".
May the feeling of God's closeness in the most difficult circumstances
of the war be for us the strength, hope, key and secret of our victory -
the victory of Ukraine.
15/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of daily video message
We see that the war in Ukraine has a clear ideological component. In
addition to the cities and villages of Ukraine, the enemy is destroying
the souls, not only of Ukrainians, but of people all over the world,
seducing them with lies, calling what is happening in Ukraine some
negative statements or words associated with evil in the past.
15/05/2022 (Source)
Address of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in Ukraine
Today we are experiencing with unspeakable pain in our hearts the
suffering of the native Ukrainian people caused by the unprovoked and
unjustified full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against
Ukraine. We, the bishops of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in Ukraine,
in our apostolic ministry remain faithful to the words of the Gospel Truth
and to our vocation to be witnesses of hope in times of tribulation and
trials.
To fulfil a certain task on earth, the Lord gives man various gifts,
talents and opportunities, but also provides a separate mission and
mission to the chosen peoples. Just as God once chose the Israelites to
enlighten all nations, so He constantly, and even today, entrusts special
calling to different nations.
We often asked ourselves: why, Lord, did you give us the gift of
freedom, restore our independence 30 years ago, raise our Church from
the underground? And today we see, experience and begin to understand
the great mission of the Ukrainian people - descendants of Kievan Rus,
heirs of Kievan baptism, courageous rulers and defenders of the
Fatherland, followers of our martyrs Boris and Gleb, wise women,
educators and prayers - followers of Princess Olga. And this vocation in
God's providence is that in times of great turmoil and the threat of
destruction not only of Ukraine but also of many other nations, the
revived Kievan Rus rebelled and stopped the evil will of the aggressor,
albeit at a high price. The price we continue to pay today on the altar
for the liberation of our and other nations to stop the insatiable
dragon,
The vocation of our Church is to remain always with our people in order
to fulfil the mission that the Lord has prepared for us, becoming a nation of martyrs-heroes who give their lives, protecting
not only our relatives but all European nations and their freedom. The mission of our Church is to become like the Blessed Virgin
Mary, who, standing under the cross of her Son, stared at His wounds with
unspeakable sorrow in her soul and at the same time hope in her eyes. And
her hope was not in vain: on the third day Jesus rose again.
We express our sincere gratitude first of all to the Defenders of
Ukraine. Your feat has already become an example for the whole world. Your
sacrificial loyalty to your people and devotion to defending our state in
the face of the challenges of a brutal and inhumane war testify to the
depth of your love. The defender is a warrior with love in his heart: for his native
people, for his land, for his parents and children, for all those who
today need protection from the hellish force of cruelty and brutality of
the Russian aggressor. Legal protection of life is both a human right
and a duty. The innocent blood of our brothers and sisters in Bucha,
Mariupol, Irpen, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and hundreds of other Ukrainian
communities requires us to have the strength and courage to become
defenders not only of life but also of humanity itself.
Our Savior taught, "No one has greater love than he who lays down his
life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). The sincerity of your love today gives
our people hope for the revival of Ukraine, for the protection of their
freedom and dignity. Only by the power of love will we be able to achieve the final victory
of good over evil, truth over lies, human dignity over human meanness.
Our victory also requires our common faith that when we courageously and
honestly seek the Truth, defend the good, fight for justice, God is with
us! We tirelessly entrust you to his care in our fervent prayers and
supplications.
Today we address our military pastors with special words of gratitude,
fraternal support and recognition for faithful service. From the first
days of Russian aggression and throughout the following years, the
military chaplains of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church did not hesitate
to sincerely respond to God's invitation to be "close" to men and women in
military uniforms, sharing the difficulties of military service and the
challenges of everyday life. During the years of armed Russian aggression,
our chaplains have been tireless witnesses of hope, standing faithfully
side by side with Ukrainian soldiers in battle trenches, military
hospitals, rehabilitation centers, providing necessary support to their
families, preserving the memory of fallen defenders and taking care of
their families.
The full-scale invasion of the Russian army into the territory of Ukraine
coincided with the implementation of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine
"On the Military Chaplaincy Service" adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. The
law creates opportunities for effective professional organization of
pastoral ministry among the Ukrainian army. At the same time, he demands
that our pastors be of the highest level of initiation in the event of
enlistment. Taking into account the challenges and needs of today, we
appeal to the clergy of our Church in freedom of spirit and generosity of
heart not to deny the Ukrainian soldier the tangible presence of God,
which is evident in the prayer and sacrificial service of the military
chaplain. May the words of our great pastor, Metropolitan Andrei,
addressed to Ukrainian soldiers in times of trials and fierce struggle,
will be your words today to our defenders: “You who are killed every day in battle, remember to keep your heart
clean from sin, be ready to stand before the Throne of God and give up
the work of a lifetime. Fulfil your responsibilities bravely! Victory is
certain, but it is a sacred right!”
In particular, we appeal to our seminarians, encouraging them to pray and
to spiritually recognize their vocation to serve the deep inner needs of
the Ukrainian soldier in accordance with the rich and long tradition of
our Church. This ministry requires special courage, which only mature
Christian love is capable of, as a gift from our Heavenly Father, which
allows us to understand "what hope He calls us to" (Ephesians 1:18).
Families of servicemen and families of fallen defenders are waiting for a
special testimony of hope today from the military pastor. The pain of
separation, the uncertainty of the coming day, the feeling of loneliness
and helplessness in the face of irreparable loss may take a long time for
final healing. The military chaplain's mission remains to show personal
responsibility - to "be close" to those most hurt by the war. Supporting
the wounded and praying for the captives can help many Ukrainian families
today to escape the destructive power of suffering and through their own
pain, uniting with the crucified Christ and lovingly "bearing one
another's burdens", finding the way to resurrection (Gal. 6: 2).
As pastors of the Church of Christ, we feel obliged to appeal to the
Russian military, soldiers and officers who have dared to take up arms
against the Ukrainian people, killing innocents, leaving children
orphaned, depriving many people of their homes and hope for the future.
The blood of innocent Ukrainian children will testify against you in the
Lord's judgment. Before it's too late, find the courage to lay down your
arms and not carry out criminal orders. Do not allow murderous
propaganda to obscure your mind and incite unjustified cruelty: "Ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn 8:32).
Repent and ask God for forgiveness for your crimes against humanity, so
that He may grant you forgiveness of sins and hope for eternal life.
In the face of terrible trials for the entire Ukrainian people, we invite
our military pastors to sincerely serve those on whom the fate of our
common future now depends. Dear fathers, military chaplains, your
prayerful presence in the ranks of the Ukrainian army should become a
source of spiritual consolation and a guarantee of tireless fraternal
support. Your vocation is to show hope in the twilight of human suffering,
to be faithful followers of God, who became man, to elevate man to
participate in God's life. But we keep each one of you in our fraternal
prayers and "remember the work of your faith without ceasing, the labor of
your love, and the patience of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1
Thess. 1: 3).
The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
13/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of video message on the Feast of Saint George
A martyr is a witness to the Resurrection. Dying, submitting to torture
and death, a martyr shows the world that the death we experience here has
already been defeated and dismissed by Christ's Resurrection, as new life
follows it... The martyr defeats his tormentors in a unique way. Those who
crucified Christ thought that they would bury His word, His teaching, and
His power forever. However, Christ overcame death by His death and
defeated the tormentors.
He who kills a martyr thinks he is defeating the one he killed. Yet the opposite happens, because the martyr is the winner, he defeats his tormentor. And today, praising St George, we speak about two features of his victory. The first is that he exposed the wickedness of his tormentors, and the second is that he sacrificed himself. These two factors are fundamental in his victory. That's why we call him a victorious Trophy-Bearer.
Today we feel that the Great Martyr St George is fighting for Ukraine – he is on our side. Today, on Ukrainian land, with his spear, he is piercing and destroying this ancient snake that is trying to harm Ukraine. And so, the victory will be St George’s, for us.
07/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of speech to Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
We know from the Russian president's statement that this war has two main
tasks: demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Demilitarization
means the final destruction of the Ukrainian state and its military
potential in order to achieve the next task - the so-called
denazification. And this clearly proves that Russia's main task is to destroy the Ukrainian people.
(…)
[Russian military action in Ukraine] can be called a textbook on genocide, according to which our people must be destroyed.
(…)
What happened in Ukraine is a terrible humanitarian catastrophe, as a result
of which 10 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes and 5
million to leave the country, and in the occupied and later liberated towns
and villages we saw such tragic phenomena as mass graves. Today these places are places of common prayer of Orthodox, Catholics,
Protestants, Jews, Muslims.
During the 70 days of the war, almost 100 churches, monasteries and
religious buildings were destroyed. In this tragedy, religious communities
have united as never before. Our All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and
Religious Organizations represents 95 percent of the religious community in
Ukraine. During the war we issued 17 different appeals. On the
night before the Russian attack, we appealed to the Russian president not to
start a war. We, the representatives of Churches and religious
organizations, have offered our mediation: if politicians and diplomats have
not been able to avert war, we have offered ourselves as mediators of
peace.
We also appealed to the religious leaders of Belarus to make every effort to
avoid the participation of Belarusian troops in the war against
Ukraine. It is worth emphasizing that the representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate took an active part in the processing of these appeals and
their transmission to Russian addressees. Due to many scandalous facts,
this Church today feels marginalized and pushed out of the life of the
Ukrainian people, although most of the destroyed churches belong to this
denomination.
(…)
The first Sunday after the start of the war, Patriarch Kirill said that this
war was metaphysical in nature and a war of values, and therefore not only
justified, but had the task of defending Orthodoxy. The analysis of
such a justification for the war shows us a great danger not only for the
Russian Orthodox Church, but for Christianity as a whole, Unfortunately, the Russian Orthodox Church has become hostage to Putin's
state doctrine, which was strongly condemned by authoritative Orthodox
theologians a month ago.
(…)
The war in Ukraine poses two important challenges: first, we need to rethink
the Church's social teaching on war and peace. The second task is to
study the relationship between the Church and the state. We see a clear
need to develop new and correct terminology to describe current challenges
in these areas, and to have the courage at the ecumenical level to respond
correctly to these dangers.
06/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of Easter Sunday Sermon
(…)
Christ is risen!
Above the valley of tears, which today is our Ukrainian land, the cry
of victory is heard from heaven: Christ is risen! Above the burned
houses, cities and villages, heaven announces to us through its angel:
Christ is risen! Above the burning Donbass and the south of Ukraine,
where the war is going on and the positions of our soldiers are
burning, the sky announces to Ukraine and the world: Christ is
risen!
(…)
The Son of God wanted to suffer in order to touch the tears, sorrows
of man and give him joy. He wanted to lie in the tomb to give life to
all those who had long since rested there and were waiting for
Him. Easter is a celebration of the victory of life. After all, we see:
everything that invades Ukraine has already been defeated, because
Christ is risen!
Today marks the second month of Russia's bloody war against Ukraine.
During that time, a new cry of victory was born. When we want to share
the joy of stopping our enemy, we say, “Good afternoon! We are from
Ukraine!". And today we want to declare to the whole world: “Christ is
risen! We are from Ukraine!".
The very fact that we are celebrating Easter in Kyiv, in the
Patriarchal Cathedral, is a miracle of God that we could not have
hoped for sixty days ago. We see how the Resurrection of Christ
becomes the strength, hope, joy of those who defend Ukraine, fight and
pray for its victory.
(…)
The enemy-attacker thought that on the third day he would celebrate
his wicked parade of victory in Kyiv, but on the third day Christ was
resurrected. The attacker thought that he would capture Ukraine in
three days, capture what he saw, but now he is defeated by what he
missed. He overlooked the people's strength, people's resistance, the
people's will to live God's God-given freedom on God's land. That is
why we say today: Christ is risen! We are from Ukraine!
We know that this morning the wounded Odesa mourned and that our
enemy on these Easter holidays on the weapons of murder – bombs,
rockets, shells – wrote sarcastically: "Christ is risen!". And we
write these words on Easter eggs, on Easter bread, which we put in a
basket and consecrate. And we will tell everyone, including our enemy:
Christ is risen! We are from Ukraine!
As we celebrate this Passover, we ask Him to be resurrected, our
Saviour, to turn our tears of sorrow into tears of joy. Resurrect Ukraine, give us victory, give us the opportunity to
joyfully celebrate and live not only on Easter, but every day. And
today our Saviour comes to take us by the hand and bring us out of
the hell into which our enemy wants to drive us.
I read with emotion a prayer that a soldier wrote on his helmet: God,
if I am killed on the battlefield, take me to heaven, because I have
already been to hell. We say: Lord, You who bring all the dead out of
hell by the hand, You who came from the dead to give life to all, take
us by the hand and bring us into the Easter joy that descends to each
of us from heaven today.
I want to congratulate you, our army, with the triumphant cry "Christ
is risen!", because thanks to you, our dear military brothers and
sisters, we celebrate Easter in Kyiv and other cities and villages of
Ukraine. Thanks to you, your life, today we can enjoy the freedom in
Ukraine and fight for it. May the Lord God help you to complete the
high mission of protection of the Motherland, which is handed over to
your hearts and hands by your people.
Words of Easter joy and greetings are addressed to those who do not
have the opportunity to celebrate in the temple, who have nowhere to
bring their Easter baskets. Words of prayer flow to the Lord God for our faithful in the
occupied Donbass, as well as in Kherson, Berdyansk and Melitopol,
which are under occupation in southern Ukraine.
I pray for the defenders and children of Mariupol. There, in the
dungeons of Azovstal, there are children who have not seen the sun for
a month and a half ... Lord, how You entered the depths of the dungeon
and came out victorious, how You passed through the stone of the
sealed tomb, come to them, take their hand and get out the dungeon
into which they were driven by the enemy of Ukraine.
Congratulations to the wounded servicemen who are currently healing
the wounds of Ukraine that they wear on their bodies. While visiting
them, I did not see a single sad face. They asked: pray that we get
better as soon as possible. May this Passover prayer be a separate,
strongest remedy for their wounds and enable them to return to full
physical and spiritual health as soon as possible.
I say special prayers for those who have been forced to leave their
homes and share the bitter fate of a refugee or even an emigrant.
Today, about ten million Ukrainians do not have the opportunity to sit
down for Easter breakfast. May our support, our prayer, our warmth
flow to them. Wherever we are, let us open our hearts to our brothers
and sisters who are on the road, let us serve them all we can.
24/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of Good Friday Sermon
(…)
Hearing this word of God about the suffering of God in man, about the
death of the Son of God in the human body, I think before the eyes of
each of us appear pictures of the Ukrainian Golgotha. We are being killed today, and Christ himself is being killed in us.
In the wounds of Christ we see the wounded, mutilated bodies of the sons
and daughters of Ukraine. In His suffering we see the grief of
corpses, the rivers of blood and the sea of tears that flood our once
flourishing cities and villages. In this funeral procession with the
shroud around our cathedral we see the lifeless bodies of our soldiers,
whom our cities and villages meet on their knees. In this tomb of the
Savior we see the mass graves of Bucha and Borodyanka. We still see
the bodies of Ukraine's daughters and sons being found in Chernihiv, and
the enemy continues to kill Ukrainians in the martyr city of Mariupol.
But today the word of God tells us that Christ's wounds are healing for
us. Therefore, He wanted to be wounded to touch our wounds with His
wounds. He wanted to be unjustly condemned in order to set us free
and break the debt obligations that the devil had written down as our
death sentence. Today, the Son of God lies in the grave next to the
tortured, shot sons and daughters of Ukraine, in order to give life to
those in the graves.
On Easter Friday, we honor the Savior's life-giving death because we know
that by giving the Spirit on the cross into the hands of the Father, we
wanted to give it [the Spirit] to man so that he could find the rest of life
again. Today we heard the words of Christ on the cross: “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? (Mark
15:34). He made his cry the cries of hundreds of thousands of people
who have not yet been rescued from the rubble and who have been calling
for the rest, asking for help. However, the occupiers did not allow
to save those people. And we are just discovering their lifeless
bodies today… How horrible their death was!
However, by placing our Christ in the tomb, we know that He will not stay
there long, but will rise on the third day, and with His death comes the
hope of resurrection. We know that He is going to hell today to lead
all the dead by the hand and bring them to Heavenly Father's house, where
there is "neither sickness nor sorrow, but there is life without
end." On this Easter Friday of this tragic year, when Ukraine is going through
its Golgotha, we kiss the wounds of Christ and ask: Lord, save, heal,
revive us! We know that You will rise from the tomb that will be
sealed today, and Your resurrection will be the joy and victory of
Ukraine. This is what You told us in the words to Your disciples at the Last
Supper: “You will weep, weep, and the world will rejoice. You will
grieve, but your sorrow will turn into joy ”(Jn 16:19). We know that
from the moment of Your burial, everything begins to change.
Lord, turn our sorrow into joy by the power of Your passion and Your
Resurrection! Turn the tears of Ukraine into joyful singing that will glorify life in
You! Today, under Your cross, Your Church sings: "Let us worship Your
passions, Christ, and look forward to glorifying Yours on the third day of
the Resurrection." Amen.
22/04/2022 (Source)
Full sermon on Easter Thursday
Good Thursday during the war. These days
we have heard many times how people of all ages, believers and
non-believers, scientists and scholars alike, have asked you, dear
fathers: where is God when bombs fall on us? Where is God when we are
killed? Where is God when our houses are burned, our cities and villages
are destroyed? Where is God when the weakest are mocked? Where is God when
man dies? Each of you has tried to answer these questions by listening to God's
word, looking for some thought and answer in Scripture. I believe that today we have a unique moment to hear what Christ himself
will answer us.
It so happens that when a person suffers, when he is wounded, when his world, his life is
broken, then the deepest secrets of his heart are revealed. When difficult or tragic times or circumstances come, all false images
that a person has invented about himself and believed in are broken. When
a person suffers, the depth of the human being is revealed.
Having taken on the abyss of human patience, Christ enters into his
passions. He himself becomes a suffering man – he becomes the one who was
sold by the nearest disciple for thirty pieces of silver, whom society
rejected and unjustly sentenced to crucifixion. The Saviour Himself wants
to die and lie in the grave. In His crucified, torn body we see, on the one hand, the depth of man's cry
for God, and on the other, the mystery of God himself.
Today we sat down with Jesus Christ for the Last Supper. We have all seen her gestures more than once, we repeated them ourselves.
Let's listen to them again today, let's look at them.
The first gesture of the Eucharistic meal is broken bread, which
symbolizes a broken life, a wounded human body. When we break bread, we see all its entrails: freshness, mold or
staleness. The Savior shows Himself present in the flesh just on the brink
of broken human life. When one asks today where God is, Christ Himself
says that is where there is the most human pain and suffering. Where the
greatest wound is, the Eucharistic bread of His Last Supper is most deeply
broken.
The Divine Master today gives his disciples a cup of his
blood. This bowl is another deep gesture. To drink a common cup is to become
something one, with two one body, life, and it also means to accept
something that you have invented and chosen for yourself. He will pray for
this cup before his passions in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying: "Father,
if you want, give this cup away from Me, but let it be not mine, but yours."
(Luke 22:42). Christ drinks the cup of human suffering, torment and death. This means
that He shows the fullness of the Divine life where man thinks that there
is no God: in the cup of suffering man receives an open space of living
communion with God, access to participation in His divinity. When we ask,
God, where are You, let us hear His voice in the midst of war: I am
here!
We humans need to see, feel His presence. God is where man cries and suffers. That is why today in Ukraine he is
being sold again, crucified, killed and thrown into mass, mass graves,
which became a great tragedy of the war. He is in his broken bread and
with his wounded people.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Establishment of the Priesthood of
Christ. The possibility of God's presence in the midst of the greatest pain,
wounds, suffering, and humiliation reveals to us the meaning and purpose of
the vocation to the priesthood. Because every priest asks: where am I
called, up or down, right or left? We see that Christ is calling us as
deeply, low and far as this world humiliates, wounds and kills man.
The gesture of washing our feet reveals to us the meaning of the priestly ministry. God leans over a wounded, bewildered man. He himself wants to touch her wounds and heal her with his wounds. Therefore, we participate in the priesthood not of man, but of God himself, who is eternal. The wounds will heal, by the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit the war will end ... God forbid that we all deeply experience the conditions of the answer to the question: what does it mean to be a priest for the Ukrainian people during its Calvary?
I returned from Chernihiv yesterday. I saw
the wounds of this ancient Ukrainian city. He had the opportunity to
embrace our fathers, monks, who bow there over the wounds of their people.
He could embrace those who gather their sheep in the midst of
destruction.
He also visited our heroic Slavutych, which is located twelve
kilometers from the Belarusian border. The ministry of our brother there is a perfect and true image of the
priest of Christ of the third millennium, who showed people God, did not
leave them in difficult times. Asked where God was when the bombs fell,
they felt that if their priest was next to them, so was God.
Therefore, today it was worthy and righteous for me, dear fathers, to
kneel and wash your feet. You have experienced the horrors of war in the bosom of our Kyiv
Archdiocese, starting from here, from the Patriarchal Cathedral and its
crypts, where we warmed, treated and fed hundreds of people who believed
that the Church would save them when the bombs fell. Thank you for that!
It was worthy and righteous for me today to kneel before you, the
fathers who went to serve the Divine Liturgy in the metro. Apparently, in the thousand-year history of Kyiv, this has never happened
before. You shared your experiences with me, in particular, how much
people felt the light of hope, that they are not alone in their grief.
It was dignified and just for me to kneel and wash the feet of those
fathers who washed the feet of their fellows who had to temporarily
leave the burning cities. You opened your home to them when they were on the road empty-handed, you
fed them, received them, washed their feet in the way they needed.
It was worthy and just to wash your feet today, fathers, who have shown
that the Church is with her people, that she not only speaks of good,
but also does it. For it is in your hands that Christ has today healed the wounds of the
people. This holy anointing, which we consecrated here in the Patriarchal
Cathedral, will spread to all the cells of our church body: from Kyiv to
Australia, South and North America and Europe, wherever the war has
scattered our people.
It is through your priestly ministry that the motto of our Patriarchal
Council is being carried out today: "Your Church is always and everywhere
with you." Always and everywhere – whether you are in a safe Western
Europe, or in burning Kharkiv, or in wounded Chernihiv, or in occupied
Kherson. Blessed is the priest who never feels unemployed and whose eternal seal of
the priesthood encourages him to work, pray and sacrifice for his
people.
Congratulations to you, Fathers, on this great holiday, on behalf of all
your Church as its Head. I bow my head before the episcopate, the clergy, the deacons, the
seminarians for the heroic testimony of God's service to the Ukrainian
people, which you are doing in these tragic times.
Blessed are the people who have such priests and feel that the power of
God is revealed to us in its fullness precisely when we need it most, when
we feel most wounded, abandoned and powerless. His strength is manifested in our suffering and helplessness. I think this
is the word of the Holy Eucharist that Christ gives us at the Last Supper
today, this Holy Thursday.
May the Lord God bless you all! Thank you also to your wives, families, because you are not alone under
the bombs. Thank you to all who pray for their priests and bishops.
I ask all our faithful to congratulate their priests on this
day. On Holy Thursday, make them feel that you need, respect, love and support
them. Then we will truly have the courage to enter into these passions with
Christ, not to run away from them.
The Apostle Paul tells us not to be ashamed of Christ
crucified. Why? Because it is in Him that we have our strength and victory. It is He
who will lead us to the Resurrection.
Today we experience passions as the Church and the people. The passions are followed by the feast of Easter, which will be our
victory in the war. May our Lord and Saviour lead us to victory! Amen.
21/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Who knows, maybe this Easter you and I will sing for the last time
"Christ is risen!"... And as if preparing for the Easter holidays for the
last time, let's be vigilant, let's be careful. After all, to hear means to be vigilant to the purity of your
heart. Those who have not yet begun Confession or Communion, hurry to the
Sacraments of God. For blessed is he whom the Lord will find insomniac,
and unworthy is he whom he finds sleepy.
19/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from Palm Sunday sermon
Today is a holiday of victory, strength and immortality. We feel this especially in Ukraine during the war. Because war is a
trap of death. How important it is for us not to be accustomed to tears, grief and
death! In the midst of the darkness, the despair of war, today our Lord Jesus Christ triumphantly enters Kyiv, Ukraine, as he
once entered Jerusalem. He will come now, during the Divine Liturgy, to give us the opportunity
to partake of His holiness, power and immortality.
We feel that Ukraine will win not only by human efforts, although they
are also needed. We feel that there is a God in our struggle with us! He
supports us and our enemy is already afraid of us. We saw the harbinger
of victory here, in our Patriarchal Cathedral, in the first days of the
war. When the officers of our territorial defence caught the first
saboteurs, powerful Russian paratroopers, they told me: "We will win,
because we saw fear in their eyes!".
Christ comes to eliminate our fear of the enemy, his various armies and
weapons, and to give us his strength. We see that we stop being afraid. We
feel the foretaste of victory in the Easter procession of Christ himself,
who goes to voluntary suffering, will be sentenced to death, crucified and
buried, but by his own power will overcome death and rise from the grave
on the third day.
It is tragic that many cities in Ukraine are now surrounded by deadly
enemy troops and we cannot go to them to bring our people the
long-awaited life-giving help. Today we especially pray for our
Mariupol. So many efforts have already been made, including
international ones, to open a humanitarian corridor to bring relief,
life and salvation to its heroic defenders. Today we ask: Lord, where we, the people, cannot enter our brothers and
sisters in the occupied territories, where we cannot open the green
humanitarian corridors, enter. Strengthen the heroic defenders of Mariupol with your strength and
victory. Comfort our people in Kherson and in other territories, which
today need Your presence and strength so much.
Today we greet Christ the Conqueror with our green branches and ask: To
fill each of us with Easter joy with your victory over sin and death. We
open our lives to You today. We spread the clothes that cover our plans
and that symbolize only our human confidence in this uncertain time. After
all, we know that You will cover us with Your power, victory and glory.
Today Ukraine greets its tsar, the only one to whom it sings: "Hosanna in
the highest!".
May God's blessing descend on each of us! May the power of God enter the heart of everyone who fights for the
victory of Ukraine! May God's holiness become the way of life and
existence of every Ukrainian, because this holiness will overcome the
evil and sin that the enemy brings to our land! May the power of the
Resurrection, to which we are heading, defeat the deadly enemy who came
to sow death, so that in just a few days we may welcome here, in our
Patriarchal Cathedral, the Resurrection of Christ, the Risen Christ, who
will finally show all victory over life and death. Amen.
17/04/2022 (Source)
Easter greetings to Catholics who follow the Gregorian calendar
To be a Christian means to believe in the Risen One. To be a Christian
means to be a partaker of His Resurrection, to be a bearer of His joy and
light. Today Ukraine is sad, but it celebrates Easter. Many people from all over the world ask me: do you have hope there in
Ukraine? I say: Obviously so, because we believe in the Resurrection.
Congratulations to all of you on this great holiday of hope! Christ
overcame death by death and gave life to those in the tombs. This
victory of the Risen One is and will be the victory of Ukraine. Happy holidays to you, God's blessing to your families, to our beloved
Motherland! Christ is Risen!”
17/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
I want to thank all the journalists who are coming to Ukraine these days
to show the world the cruel, difficult truth about the crimes of Russians
on our land. Many of them were killed and wounded. May God pay a hundredfold to
all media workers who help modern man to know the truth and then follow
it.
Today I especially want to thank all the witnesses of Russian crimes who
have the courage to testify and speak about it.
God bless Ukraine! Bless the prophets of our time who speak to the
conscience of modern man and reveal to him the eternal truth about God
present among us. God, bless Ukraine, which lives and dies for God's truth
today!
15/04/2022 (Source)
On Ukrainian Radio, speaking about reconciliation
Today, during the active phase of this unjust war, especially when we
are all waiting for another offensive by Russian troops on Ukraine, such
things are impossible in principle. After all, to put up with it, you need to be alive. When the active
phase of such a deadly war continues, it is untimely to talk about
it. They must first stop killing us – only then can we talk about the next
step.
And the next step, obviously, should be to convict the offender and
establish justice. All crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine must
be condemned by an international tribunal. Today we qualify them as
genocide. Therefore, until the criminal is exposed and his crime is condemned, it is
untimely to talk about some next step.
When the Russian aggressor is convicted, the next step may be the
beginning of a process of reconciliation. And it will be a long process.
Because the process of reconciliation means healing wounds. And without
sensitivity to the victim of this unjust aggression, we have no right,
on the Christian side, to speak of reconciliation.
15/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today we see how stolen property from Ukrainians is traded in Russia and
Belarus. I want to remind everyone that the one who buys what is stolen or
looted is an accomplice to the crime. The stolen thing becomes coal in
the hands of the one who holds it, and burns those hands. Such a people,
such people are thieves, will never have God's blessing and will die in
poverty.
We saw how the occupiers around Kyiv, in Chernihiv region, prepared
people for famine, did not give them the opportunity to work, forbade them
to go to the fields that were mined, and just cynically killed livestock.
We have seen the war crimes of looting, blatant robbery, when all property
was taken from killed and wounded Ukrainians, when a person's life was
less valuable in the eyes of the occupiers than what they could steal from
this person.
We ask the Lord God to bless Ukraine with prosperity and wealth, to give
us the strength to rebuild everything destroyed, to give us the strength
to feed the children of our people, to give us the strength to work on our
land, which is ready to give us generous fruit. With our strength,
vitality, respect for other people's property, we want to win our victory
as well.
God bless Ukraine. Bless all those who know how to respect others and
have their own. God bless our army, which protects the life and well-being
of Ukraine. God bless Ukraine as the breadbasket of Europe, as the
spiritual treasure of the whole world
14/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We are now exposing the heinous crimes of sexual violence as a weapon
against civilians, innocent people. Hundreds of cases of rape of women,
men and children ... Yesterday our President told about a case of rape
of a baby. We ask ourselves: God, how can we remain human in the midst
of that hell?
During the war, we see that sexuality is not used for love, but for
war. Who would have imagined that sexuality could be turned into a weapon of
humiliation of another, weaker person and an instrument of violence. We understand that only by God's power we can prevent distortion of
our human way of communication and life.
God bless our men and women. Bless our spouses. Bless those who, even during the war, cultivate marital love, fidelity,
inseparability of married life. Bless all those who are not afraid to have children even during the
war. Lord, save all those who turn the gift of your sexuality into an
instrument of war and sexual violence. God, save Ukraine from sin, from
hatred towards those who despise us. Give us the strength to love. God,
bless our army, bless our heroic Ukrainian people.
13/04/2022 (Source)
On the proposal of having a Russian and a Ukrainian woman carry the
cross together, on the 12th Station of the Way of the
Cross in Rome
I consider such an idea untimely, ambiguous and such that it does not
take into account the context of Russia's military aggression against
Ukraine. For the Greek Catholics of Ukraine, the texts and gestures of
the XIII station of this Way of the Cross are incomprehensible and even
offensive, especially in the context of the expected second, even
bloodier attack of Russian troops on our cities and villages. I know
that our Roman Catholic brothers share these thoughts and
experiences.
12/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Speaking with people here in the Kyiv region, one can feel that many people, many men in even territorial defence, are afraid that victory over the enemy will come without their participation, and after the liberation of the Kyiv region and the Chernihiv region, they are begging, begging to go where there are battles.
In our military enlistment offices there are queues of people wishing to
defend their homeland. The people stood up to defend their homeland.
11/04/2022 (Source)
Statements during interview with Espresso TV
Looking at the atrocities they committed in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and how
they treated churches. Moscow Patriarchate in this area,
we cannot call them Christians.
(…)
I do not want to judge or evaluate anyone, but if the actions testify to
a person's faith, then we do not recognize the Christian position by the
actions of the occupiers.
(…)
For us,
the real truce will be the victory of Ukraine, when we get rid of the
occupier. We pray and think about it, we live and serve for it. I believe that
such a victory and such a peace, a just peace, will come,
11/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
During that prayer I asked myself, I asked God, ‘God, what does it mean to love You and love one’s neighbour?’ Standing at this mass grave, seeing the lifeless arms of our murdered brothers and sisters, I realized an important thing. To love one's neighbour means to be bound together with them - to feel that we are human, belonging to the same human race. And there, where he or she lies resting in the mass grave, I can rest there as well. We have a common vocation, a common fate. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we belong to the same human race.
But let us love God, who is the source of life, not death. We ask our
loving God that we may truly feel our oneness with our brothers and
sisters, even to learn to love our enemies. And to love the enemy means to stop
his murderous hand, to take away his weapons, not to give him the
opportunity to kill. Let us ask, that in the circumstances of hatred and
murder, we know how to love God and our neighbour, and remain human.
08/04/2022 (Source)
Words spoken during visit to Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel
It’s very difficult to even speak. Their blood cries out from this place,
from this earth, to heaven. And a Christian heart, a good ear, must hear that blood’s cry. Why has this
happened? For what? It’s clear that these are young people, whose lives
were taken. We came here to pray for their eternal peace.
07/04/2022
Sermon on Feast of Annunciation
War is bad news, the worst thing that can happen to a person, to a
country, to a nation, to the whole world.
Is it possible to celebrate the Annunciation, surrounded by bad news
about the war? If so, what does that mean for us? At this time, when the enemy has trod on our land and made us cry, God
is saying "rejoice"! Is that possible?
Rejoice, - not because you already have a human solution to resolving grief, but because God himself is embodied in your history, even in your grief and in your weeping. Today in Ukraine, God weeps with us in order to take away our weeping, and to share with us his ultimate eternal joy.
(…)
We saw how the enemy army began pressing on to Kyiv, and it is as if
nature itself had begun to fight against them. The Ukrainian land
itself, the rivers of Ukraine, and even the radiation in the Chornobyl
zone... The power of Most-High is strangely manifest in the struggle of
Ukraine, which is fighting against evil
07/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Yesterday we learned that Russia brought mobile crematorium trucks – together with its artillery, missiles and heavy weapons – to Mariupol, where throughout the day and night, they burn the innocent
civilians killed.
Only during World War II in Majdanek, Auschwitz, and other famous Nazi
concentration camps, has Europe witnessed this type of crematorium near
civilian cities. The smoke of crematoria again rises to heaven from the
Ukrainian land.
07/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today in Ukraine, the sin of Cain is being committed. The innocent blood of Abel is crying out from the Ukrainian land to the heavens. Today the Lord is crying out to our murderers, to the Cains of the third millennium, saying: “What have you done? The blood of your brother is crying out to me from the earth.”
I call upon the whole world to hear the voice of blood crying out from the
Ukrainian lands to the heavens, the voice of the blood of those innocently
killed civilians, women, children, and elderly.
We believe that the Lord God will receive these innocent victims as a
sacrifice of redemption for our sins and so that there might be peace in
our homeland. These tens of thousands of innocently killed people will one
day stand at the Last Judgement as witnesses and accusers of our
murderers.
02/04/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We see that the struggle of Ukraine, the struggle of the Ukrainian people against the Russian aggressor, has all the hallmarks of a spiritual struggle. Every great war is accompanied by a great lie. And it is done in the same way to capture, imprison, occupy our minds and our hearts, and to paralyze our will.
Spiritual struggle is characterized by the fact that the devil, first of
all, tries to instil in us his thoughts in various ways, his propaganda,
his intimidation. Then, the next stage, a person begins to dialogue with
that sinful proposition, with that sinful suggestion. And from this begins
the struggle within our minds, our hearts, the street battles within the
human person with the evil that is trying to capture us. And then, if we
continue to succumb, then comes the consent of our will to evil, and comes
the internal, sinful occupation, enslavement, passion, sin.
In order to win this internal struggle, first of all, one must realize
that one cannot have a dialogue with sin, with the devil. It must be
rejected and conquered, as Pope Francis recently proclaimed in Sunday’s
catechesis. In order to resist hostile ideology, in order to expel the devil, first
of all from our minds, hearts, then from our homes and from our land, we
must first be aware of the lie. And so we must resist, with all our
strength and will. And then will come the eradication, liberation, then
there will come freedom.
Today, in particular, in the days of Lent, I call on all to wage an
internal spiritual struggle with the devil and his servants. If you feel
that certain news that you read or see on television is news that tries to
captivate your mind, will, or feelings, trying to become the inner
occupier of your person, know that this propaganda is a suggestion of
evil. And then let us resist. It is so important to realize that we can
overcome, not by our own strength, but by the power and grace of the Holy
Spirit.
01/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from video-conference with the Pontifical Oriental Institute
In Russian-controlled territories, our compatriots have their passports
confiscated, issued temporary documents, and sent to Sakhalin Island in
Russia's Far East, as far as Japan's coast, without the right to leave
for the next two years. This reminds us of the deportations of Josef
Stalin.
(…)
Russian bombs are constantly being planted in this city. In one month of the war, 1,300 missiles were shot at Ukraine (30 were
dropped on Syria in 11 years of the war), and 200,000 Russian soldiers entered Ukraine.
31/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
More and more we begin to feel the immediate consequences of this war. A
war that leads to mass murder. We see how the enemy ruthlessly destroys
our cities and villages, executes peaceful civilians, has regard neither
for the spiritual nor the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people.
We are just beginning to see more profoundly the consequences of this
war. War always brings destruction. Whole cities and villages have turned
into ghost towns. Where there was once a flourishing intellectual,
spiritual, and civic life, today there are fires and blustering wind. War
always brings hunger, impoverishment of the people. You and I must be
ready to overcome these consequences in one way or another.
(…)
Everyone is looking for reasons: How is it so? Where does the strength of
Ukrainians come from? Why do they give their lives so courageously?
We can say this today: Ukraine is defending the truth, fighting for the truth. She fights for
the fact that human life has its dignity, it is priceless. And just to
destroy it or make it a tool, a hostage in the politics of certain
political criminals is unacceptable.
30/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Do not be afraid to do good! Do not let the devil intimidate you, lead you astray from the path of
Christian and universal righteousness! Today, Russia is threatening all those who want to do good to Ukraine.
Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to do good! Do not be afraid to be in
solidarity with those who are suffering! Since good has its power and always wins. Let us combat the fear of
the devil and it will leave us.
(…)
However, Ukraine is standing. Ukraine is struggling. Even more, the
Ukrainian army is liberating our cities and villages, and our people amaze the whole world with their courage and ability to
fight. We really feel that this war is a patriotic war, although
senseless and undesirable one. But we are protecting and defending our people and Homeland
29/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Everyone who respects God's commandment "Thou shalt not steal" yet sees
the Russian occupier looting today, robbing ordinary people, taking away
the last things and dooming people to starvation, must side with
Ukraine. Everyone who respects God's commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's wife" and sees this occupier humiliating and raping the women
of Ukraine in the eyes of their children cannot stay neutral but must side
with Ukraine.
(…)
Make your choice! Take the side of an innocent victim of the unjust aggression, not
someone who has conceived of imposing their rules on Ukraine and the
whole world and is threatening with the Third World War!
28/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
We used to talk so much about unity – about church unity, national unity, even political unity – about unity, as if it were some kind of dream. And today, this dream has become a reality. We see how the country is united in the goal of defeating the enemy that is pounding Ukrainian soil. We see that everyone feels the mandate of his own conscience, to stand, endure, and be victorious.
When we say ‘our country’, we mean all of the inhabitants of Ukraine,
regardless of their national, ethnic, church, or religious affiliation,
or even if they live within the borders of Ukraine, or beyond them. We feel that victory is a joint effort. And in this
national unity we sense a foretaste of victory
27/3/2022 (Source)
Sermon during prayer service
(...)
Ukraine's victory is the victory of good over evil, the power of God over
the cruelty and lust of the invader. Victory is already beginning,
and we can feel it, experience it, even during this prayer.
A special tradition of such prayer is preserved in Kyiv. Apparently,
everyone knows the ancient princely belief about the Kyiv Oranta, which is
also called the Indestructible Wall. Our Lady of Oranta is an ancient
mosaic of the 11th century, which depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary in full
length with her hands raised in prayer. It is an icon of the prayer
of intercession. As long as the Kyiv Oranta stands, as long as the
Immovable Wall is between us, God is in the middle of his city, as it is
written in the apse of St. Sophia Cathedral, as long as the city stands,
the people and Ukraine stand.
We feel that the Blessed Virgin Mary stands today in prayer over Kyiv and
the mountains of Kyiv, and it is in this prayer that we join
her. Before Her eyes, which have been looking at us from eternity,
various events in history have taken place. We know that during the
destruction of Kyiv during the invasion of Khan Batu, the whole city was
destroyed, but Oranta in Hagia Sophia remained as a living unconquered
root, the core from which everything is reborn. She saw the invasion
of the city of Moscow princes, communist invaders Vorobyov and many
others, but always incessantly raised his hands in prayer over his
people.
By joining the Immovable Wall in this prayer, we prepare for a special
event to be held on Friday. According to the petitions of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, which she proclaimed in the early twentieth century in
Fatima, Pope Francis together with the bishops of the Catholic Church
around the world will dedicate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mother of God asked to pray for the conversion of Russia, because
otherwise the evil that will come out of it will destroy other
countries. Earlier it was said that we should not talk about the
Fatima revelation, so as not to offend Russia, but now the Holy Father
wanted to pay attention to this request of the Virgin for consecration
to defeat the evil that comes to our lands from that part of the world
and Europe.
Dedication of Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is something we
know. At one time, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, having built the
Cathedral of St. Sophia and created a mosaic of the Immovable Wall,
dedicated his city, his people and his State to the protection of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. And when the war in eastern Ukraine began, on
April 6, 2014, we restored this dedication of our people and State to the
protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the enemy was stopped by the
power of God's truth and His light. We believe that this dedication of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, carried out in the unity of all bishops of the Ecumenical
Church under the leadership of the successor of the Apostle Peter, will
be the highlight of victory over evil, the devil and his servants.
May this evil be defeated in the north, south, west and east of
Ukraine. We know that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a symbol of Her holy
and pure will, which she showed when she said "yes" to the Archangel
Gabriel. " Let it be to me according to your word " (Luke
1:38). At that moment, the Blessed Virgin Mary crushed the head of the devil,
an apocalyptic beast that is raging again, attacking Ukraine from
Russia.
May this dedication be the moment when the head of this serpent, by the
power of prayer of the Mother of God herself, the Immovable Wall of Kyiv,
will be raised again in Ukraine! We believe in this and we pray for
it. We say: "Holy Mother of God, save us!"
24/03/2022 (Source)
Words spoken during consecration of Ukraine to Mary
Each of you will tell your children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren that it was a moment of victory; the moment, when
we put the destiny of Ukraine into the hands of the Blessed Virgin
Mary
(…)
Russia was entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary because the Mother of God asked for this act to be made, since from that land evil would spread throughout the world and destroy nations, bring suffering to people. We are praying for our enemies so that the Lord stops their murderous hand. And here, in Zarvanytsia, in communion with the Holy Father, we entrusted our Ukraine to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Her Immaculate Heart, because we know that today She, the Mother of God, is with Ukraine, with our suffering people. Today, our destiny is in safe mother’s hands
25/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
The Ukrainian fight, the war in Ukraine, poses deep moral questions before the world, which say that one can never call evil good, and good evil. Therefore, we say that today the war of Russia against Ukraine has a great spiritual dimension. It is a great opposition of the newest manifestation of good – the God's truth, and evil – the devil and his angels.
(…)
It is never possible to reach an agreement, to cooperate with this evil that is coming out of Russia today. And that is why we must pray for its conversion, for the eradication of that evil, so that it, as the Mother of Fatima said, does not destroy other states, does not become the cause of another world war. As Christians, we have a duty to pray for our enemies
25/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today, I especially want to address Ukraine and the world, all statesmen of the world’s nations, to the leaders of religious communities, churches, denominations. The greatest pain of Ukraine is the city of Mariupol.
Remember, a few weeks ago we said that we were struck by these mass
graves of civilians, which we saw for the first time since World War II
and Stalin’s repressions. So, today I want to tell you that the city of Mariupol is covered with the
lifeless bodies of hundreds, thousands of people who have no one to bury
them.
So today I want to raise my voice in the name of this heroic, dying city:
Let us save it! Let us defend life! Today, this city needs humanitarian
corridors. It needs even the international community to help break through
the siege and bring humanitarian goods, which we have, to those who are
slowly dying of hunger today.
Last week, these people survived on snow that was melting and could
thereby have drinking water. Today there is no more snow in Mariupol. Let us save this City of Mary! Let us do everything to save this
city, which really is today a place of clash of good and evil, a place
where the fate of Ukraine, Europe, and the world is decided.
24/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today I would like to express my special thanks for a very unique event
that took place on Monday, literally the day before yesterday, in
Jerusalem. At the initiative of the international Elijah Interfaith Institute, an
international, interfaith, inter-church prayer for peace and victory of
Ukraine in this war took place in front of the Cathedral of the Russian
Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Pizzaballa, personally
took part in this prayer. Representatives of the Melchite Greek Catholic
Church, various Protestant, Anglican, and other communities,
intellectuals, leaders, religious figures of the Jewish community, Islamic
thinkers, and religious leaders took part. I would like to thank you very
much for the fact that this prayer took place and a corresponding
declaration for an end to the war in Ukraine was signed.
(…)
Let us pray together. Let us pray before the cathedrals of the Russian Orthodox Church
throughout the world for peace in Ukraine. We shall see that the Lord God will hear our prayers and this war will
be won. May the Lord God bless all of us.
23/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
In the temporarily occupied territories real crimes against humanity are being committed. We receive daily news about humanitarian catastrophes, murders, looting, rape. But even there, in the south of Ukraine, peaceful people are protesting against the occupying power – people are protesting against rapists and murderers. People show that Kherson and other occupied cities are Ukraine. They want to live in an independent Ukrainian free state.
21/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the Sermon on the Second Sunday of Lent
This word about God's mercy, about God's movement towards man,
sounds especially in our ears during the war. Because war is a
time of cruelty. This is a time when charity seems
empty. During the war, the word about hatred and anger is more
understandable, that the enemy must be destroyed in order for him to
leave our land. Indeed, when the enemy comes to kill us, there
is no other way to stop him than to act with the same military force
to repel the murderous hand of the assailant. But in this great tribulation, when God's mercy seems to be a
distant or naive Christian belief, we now feel the full force of God's
word, which "breaks" into the space of hatred and death, sown with
sin.
Today we ask: God, have mercy on Ukraine! On the one hand, we are now asking
the world to close the skies over us with deadly Russian missiles
and bombs, but on the other hand, we, as Christians, must ask God to
open the skies over Ukraine for God's mercy.
In order to win, you need to believe – we realize that. Because
faith gives strength. We must believe in God, who is able to
overcome our paralysis, which does not allow our body, in particular
state or national, to act effectively and resist external
aggression.
We need the closeness and mercy of the Lord God. God's mercy
heals, and war is always wounds, mutilation, and suffering. That
is why this Sunday the Church proclaims the good news that God is
coming to us even as we experience pain, rift, and death. He sees
our suffering and has mercy on us.
Today, every Ukrainian must accept God's mercy. Because we are
now in danger of death. We do not know what will happen to us in
a minute, what a deadly face of war we will see, even after leaving
this temple. That is why it is so important, according to the
traditional teaching of the Church, that we live in God's grace, be
reconciled to God, have no grave sin on our conscience, and be ready
to die at any moment. We must hurry to confession.
(…)
May God's mercy be the strength of Ukraine. May God's mercy,
which unites us with God, give us the inner living, healthy strength
to overcome. May God's mercy heal the wounds of Ukraine
inflicted on us today by the enemy. Let these words: "I say to you: Arise, take up your bed and go
to your home" (Mark 2:11) – be the words of God that will give us the
victory of Ukraine: take yours, get up and be at home, in your
homeland, God to you, this Ukrainian land!
20/03/2022
Daily video message
Do not close up to the pain of Ukraine! Because one day the Lord God will tell you: I was wounded in Ukraine, and you
turned your face away from me.
19/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today it is 17 March 2022 here and we are experiencing already the
twenty-second day of war. We are beginning the fourth week of this great
horrible and unjust aggression against Ukraine. But every morning I am
able to tell you that Ukraine is standing, Ukraine is fighting. As our
national anthem states, “Ukraine’s glory and freedom has not perished!
Still upon us, O Ukrainians, fate shall smile!” But when we speak of our homeland, our Ukraine, which is standing, which is
fighting, I see before my eyes the image of a woman.
A woman as a symbol of Ukraine. A woman who bears the unbearable burden
of war, who amid the grief of death keeps vigil over life.
A woman who builds and defends the future. Every day when we talk to people who come to our parishes, especially
in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, we see first of all women.
Women who care for the elderly and feed their children. When we care for
our people who are hiding in bomb shelters, we see first of all women. The
woman is today the symbol of the strength and courage of Ukraine. Perhaps
it seems odd: courage and woman. It used to be that courage was always
associated with a man, but here we see the female strength that gives
Ukraine hope.
Today we especially give thanks and pray for our girls, our women in the
Armed Forces of Ukraine who today with arms in hand defend their homeland.
Today we especially empathize, we especially think about and pray for the
women who are victims of this war in occupied territories. In our villages in the Kyiv region, women are becoming the first
victims of the occupation, victims of violence, victims of humiliation,
victims of rape. A image has circulated throughout the world of the
so-called “Kyivan Madonna,” a young woman who is breastfeeding her
newborn child on the steps of a bomb-shelter in Kyiv. But we behold today the face of women who are forced to flee her
homeland with her children and travel abroad. Today we hear about more
than three million refugees. Until this time Europe, especially Italy, has
seen women who travelled for work.
The Holy Father called them heroines who once more brought the Christian
faith and Christian values to Italy families. Today Europe has seen
mothers who hold their children by the hand, rescuing them from war, but
their parents turn back to defend their land with arms. Who can fully
comprehend the pain of a woman, a mother, who mourns the death of her son
killed in war? Or a woman who has lost her husband, brother, or
sister?
But most of all we are amazed by women who stand in prayer before God.
Women who are like the Kyiv Oranta, the Unshakeable Wall, who day and
night with upraised arms prays for her city, prays for her country.
Today the woman is the symbol of hope for Ukraine, a symbol of
fearlessness, a symbol of victory of life over death, a symbol of the fact
that Ukraine will stand even through such inhumane circumstances.
Today we pray to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, preparing for this
consecration of Ukraine and Russia and her Immaculate Heart, which Pope
Francis announced. We would like to dedicate women and the women of
Ukraine to the protection of the Immaculate Theotokos.
17/03/2022 (Source)
Comment on the announcement of the consecration of Russia and Ukraine to Our Lady
The Ukrainian people have long been waiting for this spiritual event.
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014, Ukrainian Catholics
have asked to carry out this act as a necessary condition to prevent the
outbreak of war and all the dangers coming from Russia.
(…)
With the beginning of a full-scale war, our faithful from around the
world have asked to fulfil the words of the Blessed Virgin in
Fatima.
(…)
We are grateful to the Holy Father for responding first of all to Mary's
call at the proclamation of Fatima on July 13, 1917, and to her children's
request to defend Ukraine and stop the mistakes of Russia, which promotes
war and persecution of the Church. Today we are witnessing the fulfilment of the words of the Mother of
God, who said: The righteous will be persecuted, the Holy Father will
suffer, many nations will be destroyed.
16/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
God is with us. Today he is on the side of Ukraine and all those who suffer
innocently. The Lord is always on the side of the victim of unjust
aggression. Therefore, believing in such a God, I believe in the victory of
Ukraine
(…)
The Church teaches that we have the right to defend our homeland.
Moreover, it is a natural right and a sacred duty. We are not talking
about the right to kill, but about the duty to defend ourselves. The
defence must be proportional to how the attacker attacks us
15/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
In such circumstances, there can be no neutral position. Because he who is silent, who does not
condemn this war, becomes an accomplice in the crime, the aggression of
killing peaceful people of Ukraine, so thank you to all those who together with Ukraine are fighting for the
right to peaceful existence
14/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from interview with Radio NV
I am impressed by the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, its
structures in Europe, which assess the war in a completely different
way. In particular, I was impressed by the
position of the representatives of the Munich hierarchy, who condemned
Russia's aggression against Ukraine and appealed to their faithful Russians
to accept refugees from Ukraine. They are organizing a fundraiser for
our refugees to help us
We see that the truth is being manipulated by Russia itself, the Church
is being used for its military propaganda. I think this is unacceptable. But the whole free world, Catholic,
Orthodox and Protestant, strongly opposes this position. I know that dozens of letters have been written to Kirill demanding
an immediate end to the war.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate supports our
statehood, we see clear messages given by His Beatitude Onuphrius.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the sermon for the first Sunday of Lent
Get out of your comfort zone and defend your land, do everything you
can where you are, so that the truth may prevail. If you are a warrior – defend the country, if you are a teacher – teach
children, if you are an entrepreneur – do everything to make your business
work, give profit to the state and work to the people. If you are a
doctor, treat the wounded. If you are a spiritual person, pray for
your Motherland, for your Ukraine.
Today, the Ukrainian people are asking where God is when the enemy kills
Ukrainian children? Where is God when Russian bombs and rockets fall on our heads every
night? Where is God when the enemy bombed even the Svyatogorsk Lavra in
Donetsk region? Where are you, God? I think this is a deep cry of
prayer of the Ukrainian people to our God and Creator.
Christ suffers today in the body of Ukraine, suffers as the Head of
that Body, the Church of Christ.
13/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
War is always a failure for humanity. War is always a moment of shame, a moment in which man's dignity is humiliated.
When we strive for peace, everything is possible. When war breaks out, we
can lose everything. In Ukraine, today, we are seeing great contempt for
human dignity. With war, man loses his humanity, especially he who starts
war, he who starts war diminishes himself in his humanity. He who kills his
neighbour, before all else, destroys the humanity within himself,
destroys his own dignity.
As Christians what can we do to counter this contempt for humanity during
the war in Ukraine? Firstly, we must do the works of mercy, we must do all
we can to show respect for human dignity.
Today we pray for the Ukrainian army, which defends and reaffirms this
dignity. We pray for the civilian population of Ukraine, for our refugees,
for those who find themselves in cold cities, and sieged towns without
water, food or heating, we remember them and we want to help
them.
Today we fight for humanitarian corridors and for a way to save people
respecting their dignity, regardless of what language they speak, what nation they belong to,
what Church they are part of. Today in Ukraine there is a war for human dignity.
We know that to bury the dead is one of the works of mercy. We are now faced with the fact that the Russian aggressor who has
transgressed upon Ukrainian soil does not respect the bodies of its own
dead. He does not want to pay the due respects to his dead in Ukraine.
And our own volunteers, our good people, want to return the bodies of
the Russians who have been killed, but nobody will take them back to
bury them with dignity.
Today, in Ukraine, we see mountains of bodies, rivers of blood and a sea
of tears. Our heart aches to see thousands of people buried without a
prayer, without Christian respect, in mass common graves, with no
identification. Only in Mariupol, according to official numbers, close to
1.500 civilians have died during these days and been buried in mass
graves. How important it is for us today to show respect for the bodies of
our dead, be they military or civilian. Our people kneel before the bodies
of our dead soldiers when they are returned to their cities, towns and
families.
Today I ask all our priests all across Ukraine, to celebrate Divine
Liturgies and pray for the souls of the dead, as a sign of our respect for
those who have died on Ukrainian soil as a result of this horrible and
inhumane war.
12/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Ukraine is healing the wounds of war, rescuing and embracing her children who are suffering. It really seems that this war is becoming a war primarily against the civilian peaceful population. Even according to official statistics, in these days there have been more deaths among civilians – women and children – than among the military. We mourn the children of Ukraine who have become innocent victims of this war.
We amaze the whole world with our strength which gives us the possibility
to believe in victory. The great majority of people in Ukraine believe
that Ukraine will be victorious.
Our soldiers constantly ask us: Pray for us. I want to pass on this
request of the Ukrainian army, in whose hands lies the fate of Ukraine, to
all of you who hear me. Pray! Pray for our Ukrainian army, which today is defending peace in Ukraine,
Europe and the world.
Today I wish to sincerely thank all those who, at the international and
inter-religious level, are doing everything to stop the war. I thank the
Orthodox brethren, particularly in Germany and Western Europe, the Russian
Orthodox Church abroad, which is trying to serve refugees and which is
appealing to the church hierarchy in Russia for the need to end the war
immediately. I thank the WCC which is doing everything to stop this war. I
thank the Catholics and Protestants of France who with a particular
appeal, are doing everything to stop the bloodshed in our land.
11/03/2022 (Source)
Ecumenical prayer for peace in Lviv
O God, Father almighty, Lord, Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ and You, O
Holy Spirit—one Divinity and one Power! Before Your eyes today we present the sorrow and pain of Ukraine.
Mountains of corpses, rivers of blood, and seas of tears. We prayer for
all those who gave up their lives for the homeland, for our army, for the
sons and daughters of Ukraine, who shield lives with their own bodies in
the face of the enemy. We pray for all those innocently killed peaceful people of Ukraine:
women, children, the elderly. We pray for the victims of Mariupol who are being buried in massive
common graves without Christian burial and honour. Receive our prayers for their eternal repose!
10/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today, my conscience, the conscience of every Christian, forces us to
take a voice to say a sharp word “no” to the whole world, to protest
against the mass murder of people in Ukraine. In particular, in the last
minutes we saw mass killings in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Yesterday we saw horrific footage of the bombings of the maternity
hospital, as well as mass graves, mass graves, in which there are
hundreds of lifeless bodies. And today we must tell the whole world "no"
to the massacres in Ukraine.
We are telling the whole world today: stop the mass killings!
10/03/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Today, that miracle over the Dnieper is created by our Ukrainian army, stopping the invasion of the northern neighbour, who stepped on our land, bringing destruction and death, trying to destroy the freedom-loving Ukrainian people (…) We are working a miracle for the people, who are showing their love of freedom to the whole world. And it amazes the whole world.
[To the international community] Do everything you can to stop this madness! Because today, before our
eyes, Ukraine is being crucified. There is no night when bombs do not fall on the heads of civilians.
Let's stop the war together! Let us together be instruments, instruments
of God's peace in our time!
08/3/2022 (Source)
He [Pope Francis] clearly said that this was not an operation, but a war. The war, first of all, is against civilians, civilians [For Pope Francis’ words, see below]
(…)
Today we ask the world community to close the skies over Ukraine, because Russian cruise missiles kill the most people in our lands
07/3/2022 (Source)
From the sermon on Forgiveness Sunday
(…)
Today in Ukraine there is a war for the hearts and minds of the
people – a struggle that affects all humanity, all people and
encourages everyone to make their choice. The internal battlefield is crucial.
If in the mystery of the evangelist and which the Father sees, evil
prevails, man will be the source of war around him in the outside world,
will provoke the new battlefields, where entire nations will perish
... Then that battlefield with its disgusting face and devastation will
break out by force and cause great suffering to people. As evil prevails inside a person, in his heart, he will become the
cause, the source of evil around him and will not be able to resist it
in the outside world.
At the end of this Gospel passage, we hear that when it comes to
victory, it is not the outer world but the inner world that comes
first. What does it take to win this war? What does it take to destroy the
enemy, to defeat evil?
The Lord gives us a special "secret" weapon. He says the secret of victory is forgiveness. This may surprise us: what is it like to think about forgiveness
during the war? From a human point of view, in times of war we should talk about
hatred – hatred of those who attack us. However, if on the inner battlefield, which is our heart, we act
under the influence of hatred, then we are already defeated by
evil. That is why today's Gospel speaks not so much of man's
forgiveness as of the key to victory over the devil, which is first and
foremost forgiveness that comes from God.
(…)
Today we say: God, forgive my sins. May
Your victory dwell in my heart. And God's victory is always the victory of good over evil, truth over
untruth, peace over war. Entering the time of repentance, we begin to learn to overcome.
It is so important for us to know the secret of victory and to have a
power over which our enemy is powerless.
Therefore we ask: Lord, as You have forgiven us, so we want to
forgive all those who have forgiven us. This is the position of the winner. Today it is very important to defeat the enemy on the inner
battlefield. Then we will overcome it, defending our cities and
villages, our Motherland.
To defeat the enemy who came to our land, you must first be
spiritually and morally superior, stronger than him, in any case not
to imitate his behavior, position, language and insults! By affirming the victory of good over
evil, we become warriors of light and defenders of peace, and thus gain
that true treasure of the eternal and just. That is why Christ says:
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Mt
6:21).
Today, this most important treasure that we, as a nation, need is the
treasure of the victory of good over evil. That must be our greatest wealth, which will be in our hearts - the
Truth of God, in which is His all-conquering power.
We also ask: Lord, give us the weapons with which we can defeat the
devil and all his angels. Give us the weapon with which we can win not only the war, but also the
war itself and all those who cause it and brought it to the land of
Ukraine.
Today we especially pray for our army, for those who really
defeated the enemy on the battlefield of their own hearts, because
it is out of love for the Motherland that they overcome those who
attack us with greater, from a human point of view, strength.
"Gather up your treasures in heaven" (Mt 6:20) is a great call to all
of us. Because war is always destruction. War is always a waste of resources.
Evil, hatred and sin dry up and exhaust the soul, bleed and weaken a
person. Instead, God's forgiveness, received and transmitted, mercy and
love for God and neighbor revive and renew the mental and physical
strength of man, give him the ability to endure the struggle to the end
and gain an advantage over the enemy. Therefore, in the field of spiritual struggle, one cannot lose or
scatter, but on the contrary – to obtain and collect such treasure,
which "neither moths nor worms destroy and where thieves do not break
through walls or steal" (Mt 6:20).
Today Christ asks us to gather... When we overcome evil, we overcome destruction, we gather real,
eternal treasures, over which Russian tanks and cruise missiles are
powerless. Our Taras Shevchenko tells us about these treasures, who at one time
emphasized the importance of telling the world about "what was going
on in Ukraine, why did it die, what Cossack glory became for all over
the world !?" (Before Osnovyanenko, 1839, St. Petersburg.) These are the treasures of our ancestors, which are still our common
national treasure and inspire us to victory.
God, give us the victory of Ukraine! Give us victory over the enemy! Give peace to our
Motherland. And most importantly – give us victory over sin and death in our
hearts, so that with You and in You was our treasure. Amen.
06/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Daily video message
We pray for the enemies who came to our land to kill. We pray that the
Lord God will stop their murderous hand. God bless Ukraine! God, save your children! God, forgive
our sins and grant Ukraine victory!
06/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
To you, dear children, daughters and sons of our people, I say: we are
waiting for you back home, when there will be a peaceful sky over
Ukraine. Your mother Church will accompany you, help you where the hardships of
war will take you.
(…)
I want to thank and bless the Ukrainian army, our soldiers, girls and
boys who defend peace in Ukraine, thanks to whom today, on the ninth day
of the war, we are still alive, thanks to which Ukraine wins, Ukraine
stands, Ukraine fights.
(…)
Today we feel that Archangel Michael is fighting for Ukraine with the whole heavenly
army. We are praying today: Archangel Michael and all the heavenly army, all the heavenly forces
fight for Ukraine, overthrow the devil who attacks us, kills us, brings destruction and death.”
4/3/2022 (Source)
Daily video message
Together we are a nation that builds and defends peace in Ukraine and
the world, at the price of our own blood.
Truly the words of Christ are being fulfilled. “No one has greater love
than this: that someone would lay down his life for his
friends.” We see that not hatred, but love conquers. Love gives birth to
heroes, but hatred to criminals.
That is why I encourage all of us: let us learn to love in this tragic
time. Let us not be taken captive by hatred. Let us not use the language
of hatred. The one who hates the enemy is already overcome by him. We
will conquer with the power of love, for our homeland, for God, and for
our neighbour.
Let us pray not only for peace in Ukraine, but let us pray for our enemies, for their conversion, for the
conversion of Russia, as Our Lady of Fatima requested of us.
01/3/2022 (Source)
Beloved and God protected Ukrainian people!
Once again, our homeland is in danger!
The treacherous enemy, despite his own obligations and assurances,
breaking the basic norms of international law, as an unjust aggressor
set foot on Ukrainian soil, bringing with him death and
devastation.
Our Ukraine, which the world rightly called "bloody lands",
which so many times was sprinkled with the blood of martyrs and fighters
for the freedom and independence of its people, calls us today to stand up for our homeland, our dignity before God
and humanity, our right to exist and the right to choose our future.
It is our inherent right and a sacred duty for everyone to protect
their land and their people, their state and everything that is most
dear to us: their family, their language and culture, their history and
their spiritual world! We are peaceful people who love children of all nations with Christian
love, regardless of origin or beliefs, national or religious
affiliation. We do not encroach on someone else`s property and do not
threaten anyone, but we do not have the right to give our own to anyone!
At this historic moment, the voice of our conscience calls us all as one
to stand up for the free, united and independent Ukrainian state!
The history of the last century teaches us that all those who started global wars were the ones who lost them, and the idolaters of war brought only destruction and decline to
their own states and peoples. We believe that the Lord God is with us at this historic moment! He, in Whose hands lies the fate of the whole world and every person,
in particular, is always on the side of the victim of unfair aggression,
on the side of the suffering and enslaved. It is he who declares his Holy
Name in the history of every nation, catches and throws down the powerful
of this world by their own pride, the conquerors by the illusion of their
omnipotence, the proud and bold by their own self-confidence. It is he who
grants victory over evil and death. The victory of Ukraine will be a victory of God`s power over the
baseness and insolence of man! This was always the case, so it is now and so it be!
Our Holy Martyr Church has always been with her people, it remains here
for them and stands by! This Church, which has already known death and resurrection, as the Body
of the Risen Christ over whom death has no power, was bestowed by the Lord
to his people in the baptismal waters of the Dnieper. Since then, the
history of our people and their Church, the history of their liberation
struggle, the history of the embodiment of God`s word and the
manifestation of his spirit of truth in our culture have been intertwined
forever. And at this dramatic moment, our Church, as our Mother and
Teacher, remains with its children to protect them and serve them in the
name of God! God is our hope and from Him will be our victory!
Today we solemnly proclaim: "We will lay down our souls and bodies for our freedom!” Today, with one heart and mouth, we pray: "Great and one God, save Ukraine for us!’
Holy Righteous, Martyrs and Confessors of the Ukrainian land, pray and
intercede for us before God!
The blessing of the Lord may be upon you!
Message to Defense Minister Shoigu
I cordially congratulate you, the command and
all the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the Defender
of the Fatherland Day.
This holiday unites all those who courageously
defend the freedom and independence of the country, who, not sparing their own
lives and setting an example of true patriotism and active love for their
neighbours, ensure the security and sovereignty of the Motherland. In the
current difficult time, our soldiers, imitating the glorious deeds of their
ancestors, selflessly and heroically carry out military service on the
southwestern borders of Russia and protect the civilian population of Donbass.
The clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church strive to spiritually support our
soldiers and officers who perform their military duty in the fields of the
Northern Military District, and share with them the hardships of military labours.
23/02/2023 (Source)
Message to Chairman Mishustin
Today, in a difficult time of trials for
Russia, our fellow citizens, both fighting courageously on the fields of a
special military operation and supporting them in the rear, show solidarity and
active love for the Fatherland and neighbors. I am convinced that the
exploits of the modern defenders of the Motherland, already inscribed in the
history of our country, will also inspire young people to creative work.
23/02/2023 (Source)
Message on occasion of 80th
anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad
I cordially congratulate you and your
comrades-in-arms on the day of military glory - the 80th anniversary of the
defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.
The feat of fathers and grandfathers, who
showed unparalleled heroism, valor and self-sacrifice during the defense of
Stalingrad, inspires our courageous soldiers today, performing responsible
combat missions on the fields of a special military operation and defending the
sovereignty, independence and security of our country.
I am convinced that the joint work of the
Russian Orthodox Church and the state authorities, aimed, among other things,
at preserving the historical memory of the people, will continue to contribute
to the patriotic and moral education of the younger generation, the
establishment of the norms of traditional morality in the life of society.
I wish you and all the personnel of the Armed
Forces of the Russian Federation good health, good spirits, courage and God's
generous help in serving the Fatherland.
02/02/2023 (Source)
Words on the 14th anniversary of his
enthronement
I thank God for the fact that church-state
relations in the Russian state are developing in this way today, and God grant
that it will continue to do so in the future. I thank Vladimir Vladimirovich
Putin, the President of our country, for his kind words of welcome, and also
for the fact that he supports this way of interaction between Church and State.
To put it bluntly, this is the first time in the long history of the Russian
Orthodox Church. Because even in the Orthodox Empire the Church was not simply influenced
by the State, but had to listen carefully to what the State had to say. Often
it was necessary to deviate from its pastoral principles, following
instructions from on high, which may be why the great tragedy of the
persecution of the Church occurred, after the change of the state system in
Russia.
Once again I would like to say that today the
Russian Orthodox Church exists under unique conditions. Indeed, harmony in the
relations between the secular and the church, with full preservation of
autonomy, non-interference and at the same time a general awareness of the
importance of the interaction of all forces – society, the state, the Church –
in order for our country to continue on that truly independent of the
centres of world power, which it is courageously pursuing. And we must not
think that if some of the powers that be are displeased with this, if someone
criticizes the Church and the state, then all this can or should somehow affect
our true spiritual sovereignty, and, as far as the state is concerned, also our
political sovereignty. The privilege, given from above, of being free is indeed
a great blessing, and God grant that such church-state relations may develop
not only in the Russian Federation, but also throughout the whole area of
canonical responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church.
(…)
May the blessing of God abide over our entire
Russian Orthodox Church, over the countries and peoples that make up the
historical area of Holy Rus', over our Russian state. May the blessing of
God rest on the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich
Putin, who courageously defends the true sovereignty of our country, and on all
those who today defend an independent, free course dictated by our true
spiritual, cultural and historical interests.
01/02/2023 (Source)
Speech at the XI Christmas Parliamentary
Meetings in the State Duma
For almost a year our country has been in a
state of armed conflict, fratricidal confrontation, provoked by external forces
interested in the enmity of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, in the destruction of their common
historical memory and deprivation of their common future.
The Church has never divided and does not divide
its flock into “strangers” and “friends”, does not oppose people to each other,
knowing that in the eyes of God every person has value. Staying with its
people, the Russian Orthodox Church, like a loving mother, tries to help
everyone who is affected by the hardships of wartime, who suffers and needs,
who lost their homes and was left without support.
The Lord Jesus Christ warns us in the Gospel
that wars will accompany the earthly existence of mankind and we will hear
about wars and war rumors (Matthew 24:6). Apparently, it will be so
until the end of human history; such is the sad reality of a world
afflicted with sin, the multiplication of which will inevitably lead, including
to wars. But people, understanding with their minds that the world is full
of wars and unresolved conflicts, often think that they will not affect them,
that they are somewhere out there, far away. And many believed that the
confrontation in the Donbass, which began back in 2014, and the suffering of
the civilian population are in some kind of parallel dimension, because they do
not prevent those who are watching from the side from enjoying all the benefits
of their usual life. This state is now called a hybrid war, when it is not
entirely clear where the war is going on, what kind of war it is, why it burns,
kills, disfigures some, while others live as if nothing is happening.
The Church's reaction to the war has been
formed over the centuries and remains unchanged: we respond with a prayer
for peace, which is now offered up in all churches. This prayer
unites millions of believers, including those on different sides of the
confrontation. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26), the
word of God teaches us, and the faithful children of the Church confirm it with
an active love for their neighbors – through the labors of thousands and
thousands of volunteers, donors, doctors, sisters of mercy, who have been
working all these months, helping the wounded and victims of the military
actions. This ministry has long gone beyond the boundaries of the church
fence and beyond state borders. I would like to express my gratitude to
the volunteers: all of you, my dear ones, are real heroes. And I
especially thank those volunteers who, really not sparing their lives, go to
the most difficult points of the conflict, which caused numerous victims.
The peaceful position of the Church is to call
upon all parties to the conflict to treat the prisoners of war humanely, if
nothing else, to facilitate their return to their homeland, to help people
evacuate from dangerous places of residence. Of course, the most important
thing is the end of all hostilities, reconciliation and the restoration of
fraternal relations between the peoples involved in the conflict. But as long
as the conflict continues, we must at least show mercy to those who are really
suffering, to those who are becoming disabled, to the families who are losing
their breadwinners.
Through its pastoral care of military men, the Church constantly points out
that the task of the Christian soldier is to fulfill his duty on the
battlefield honestly and selflessly, while maintaining his spiritual dignity.
Fighting the enemy for the Christian must not turn into hatred of the
individual. The Motherland requires defense, and among the soldiers there
are a very large number of Orthodox men - so it was, so it is and probably so
it will always be. Therefore it is very important to be guided by the right
moral and spiritual guidelines. The fight against the enemy must not turn
into hatred of the individual and be accompanied by incredible cruelty, as we
know from the treatment of our prisoners of war on the other side of the line
of operations. Many of our interlocutors in the inter-Christian and
inter-religious dialogue share the peacebuilding stance of our Church, and I am
grateful to all those who support our Church today.
I cannot but say about the situation of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Deep sorrow and righteous indignation are
caused by the attempts of the current Kyiv authorities and their patrons abroad
to use the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a tool for inciting Russian-Ukrainian
enmity. An active role in these destructive processes, unfortunately, is
played by the Phanar, that is, Constantinopolitan figures, who staged the church
schism.
I am absolutely convinced that reconciliation
in the future is impossible without a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of
the political situation. That is why it causes such hatred among the
current architects of world conflicts, who are not interested in our peoples
living in prosperity and peace.
At present, the Ukrainian Church is being
subjected to unprecedented persecution by the state authorities. These
persecutions are comparable in their scope and cynicism only to the persecution
of faith in the 20th century in our country. Searches are carried out
everywhere in dioceses, monasteries and parishes, on far-fetched pretexts,
criminal cases are initiated against the clergy, against believers, who are
also discredited in the media; the most important Orthodox shrines for our
peoples are being taken away and desecrated.
With each passing day, calls to completely ban
the activities of the canonical Orthodox Church are heard stronger and
stronger. All this can be regarded as part of a global external order for
the destruction of canonical Orthodoxy within a single country - Ukraine. At the same time, all
references to the violation of the norms of international law regarding the
protection of the rights of believers are simply ignored, as if international
law does not exist at all. Many human rights organizations prefer not to
notice what is happening and thus reveal their political bias, which we guessed
back in ancient times, when our country, at that time the Soviet Union, was
criticized, while ignoring human rights violations, including religious
freedom, in other countries loyal to the Western bloc.
For the Church as a single spiritual space,
there are no political boundaries. There cannot be divisions on a
political, national or territorial basis for our Orthodox brothers and
sisters. Last year, speaking in the Federation Council, I noted that the
peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who came out of a single Kyiv Baptismal font,
who are united by the Orthodox faith and bound by a common historical destiny, cannot
be considered the culprits of the current situation. And today I will
say that neither the people of Russia nor the people of Ukraine can be
interested in this internecine strife. And believe me, I have enough
information from the depths of Ukrainian life to testify to this.
All people of good will need a just and lasting
peace, the opportunity to exist without war. The political mainstream that
has formed in the West leads to the fact that the traditional norms of
Christian morality, especially those relating to marriage and the family, are
subjected to deliberate marginalization. We cannot agree with the
desecration of our spiritual heritage and allow us to return to a time when,
under the slogans of progress, faith, their national and cultural identity are
being removed from people's lives.
It's no secret that against the backdrop of
partial mobilization, some of our fellow citizens left Russia. Of course,
the fear of death they probably experienced is understandable. I think
that many of them need spiritual help and edification. At the same time, I
would like to note that people left for different reasons, so it would be wrong
to make any general judgments about everyone. Some are surprised by the
mass departure. But should this surprise us? After all, for many
years among the younger generation, false values imported from outside were
implanted and approved, perceived completely uncritically.
We must think about the systems of upbringing
and education, which turn at least part of our youth into internal emigration,
while the situation in the Fatherland requires from them, like from everyone
else, sanity and patriotism.
There is also an acute question about the
post-war future of both Ukraine and Russia, about the return of people to their
homes, about the revival of infrastructure and the social sphere. In part,
this issue is already being resolved, but we know that many buildings, entire
districts, villages and cities will have to be restored. It is already
clear today that a comprehensive revival of peaceful life will take
years. I would like to testify to the readiness of the Church to
participate to the extent possible in healing the wounds of hostilities.
History convincingly shows that peoples and
states that have trampled on their values are experiencing a deep
crisis. Today this is happening with many countries and peoples, and the
Lord is knocking on the hearts of people, prompting us to correct those
shortcomings that we also allow if we allow false values and stereotypes imposed
on us to enter our lives. It is gratifying that processes have visibly
begun in Russian society to overcome this kind of spiritual and moral
flaws. Indeed, what is happening with the country today has forced many to
rethink their point of view, and more and more people understand how important
such a value as love for the Motherland, as loyalty to one's country, as a
readiness to defend one's sacred borders.
(…)
During the period of partial mobilization, in
cooperation with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, it was possible to
come up with a temporary solution, thanks to which the clergy were granted a
deferment from mobilization for the entire duration of their stay in holy
orders. As you know, the canonical norms of the Orthodox Church strictly
forbid clergy from entering military service and even taking up arms. We
hope that this decision will be enshrined in law. The priest is called
to help the belligerents, but not with weapons in their hands, but spiritually
supporting the soldiers. Our military chaplains are in the hottest points
of confrontation, and often die. Already five priests have been killed on
the front lines. Fathers are not hiding somewhere behind the carts, they,
along with their soldiers, along with their flock, very often are on the very
front line of the front, but they are not protected by anything. When
soldiers go on the attack, often with them, as in pre-revolutionary Russia, a
priest with a cross goes in front - and, of course, becomes a desirable target
for the enemy. That is why today there are those who have died among
the priests who carry out their pastoral ministry at the forefront of the
front. I think that many have heard about the pastoral work and ministry
of Archpriest Mikhail Vasilyev, who was posthumously awarded the title of Hero
of Russia by the President. And the feat of Father Michael is now being
continued by many.
It seems overdue to fix in the legislation the
provisions on providing the clergy who take care of the soldiers in the combat
zone, as well as their family members, with the same social guarantees and
benefits that are provided to the military personnel involved in the conduct of
a special military operation. Indeed, if a priest is with the military, if he
is on the front line, then why shouldn't he have the guarantees that the
military has? I emphasize once again that the priest is the most desirable
target of the enemy, snipers first of all aim at the priests.
26/02/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a speech at the plenary session of
the 21st International Christmas Readings
For several years now, external forces have
been using the Patriarchate of Constantinople for their political purposes. His
position is very vulnerable, since the center is in Turkey, in the territory
controlled by the non-Orthodox authorities, and the main dioceses and sources
of income are in the United States and Western Europe. It is quite obvious that
these factors deprive the Patriarchate of Constantinople of freedom, and
therefore it is through it that they try to split the Russian Orthodox Church
today by legalizing the newly created schismatic structure in Ukraine. Being
under powerful pressure from these forces, some Primates, as well as hierarchs
of a number of Local Orthodox Churches, declared the recognition of the
schismatics. Here is a very good indicator: if a certain hierarch defends a
schism, then this person is not free, he is controlled by other forces. Today, the attitude towards schism
determines the level of true freedom of a particular Church, its ability to
independently make important decisions.
In these difficult conditions, our joint
efforts to preserve the unity of the Holy Church of Christ, the guarantee of
which is fidelity to the canons and patristic tradition, are of particular
importance. The unity of all the faithful of our Church with humble hope in the
One Head of the Church — our Savior and Lord, unchanging adherence to His
commandments — this is the basis on which it is possible in good time to
overcome church discords, enmity between peoples and divisions unusual for
Orthodoxy that have arisen in relations today between Local Orthodox Churches.
Let us pray to the God of love and peace (2 Cor. 13:11) that He bow down His
mercy and fill us with faith, hope and love, setting up peace and unanimity in
all the countries of Holy Russia.
Sacred prayers for overcoming pernicious splits
and divisions, for the salvation of our land and people, artificially divided
by borders, we lift up to all the saints who shone in the vastness of
historical Rus'. We cherish the memory of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir
and his sons-passion-bearers Boris and Gleb, of the miracle-workers of
Kiev-Pechersk, of St. Paisia Velichkovsky, of the martyrs of Yuryev and
Vilna, of the new martyrs of the 20th century, who suffered during the period
of persecution of the faith. Every year this host of saints is replenished with
new names. The Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints should
continue to work to identify the exploits of the saints of God, who have not
yet been glorified by the Church. It is very important that the feat of life of
these saints be known to our youth, that it is the saints who become their true
heroes and role models. I trust in the Lord that
25/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a speech
Our country and the whole world are now going
through very difficult circumstances associated with the emergence of many
risks, and all of you are well aware of this. The Church is not a political
force, it is not involved in solving external and even internal political
problems. But the Church takes to heart the anxieties of the people, the
experiences and, all the more so, the sorrows of people. And, of course, what
is happening today in the expanses of historical Rus' cannot but respond with
pain in our hearts. As an enemy of the human race, he sowed the seeds of
discord, as he gave rise to conflicts and confrontations, including between
Orthodox people who became victims of the very civil strife that is taking
place today in the vastness of Rus'. And as always, when our people entered the
era of civil strife, whether in antiquity, the Middle Ages or modern times,
Our Church is the Church of all Rus'. Both
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries and peoples that are part of
historical Rus' are covered by our pastoral ministry, which means that the
problems that arise should be accompanied by our fervent prayer that the Lord
reconcile people, prevent internecine battles to strengthen the spiritual ties
of all the peoples that make up historical Rus'.
Our prayer should be especially fervent and
strong for this today. God grant that the Lord would incline mercy to all
historical Rus', our Russian state, which today is really facing many
dangerous, but at the same time fateful challenges. And God grant that the
right answer be found to these challenges, which would further strengthen the
fraternal ties of the peoples of Holy Rus'.
We believe that today this task is an important
part of the mission of our Church, because there is practically not a single institution,
not a single organization left that, without being involved in political
upheavals, would have influence throughout the vastness of all of Rus'. And
therefore, today my word is to the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and
everyone else who enters the historical reality of Holy Rus': to do everything
so that the enemy of the human race, having sowed the seeds of enmity, does not
lead to fratricide, so that all attempts to provoke internecine strife are
stopped and completely eradicated so that peace, prosperity and brotherly love
are present among all the peoples of historical Rus'.
Today, these prayers are accompanied by empathy
for all those who have lost their homes, health and even life. Therefore, I
especially call on our entire Church to intensify prayer for the reconciliation
of the peoples of Rus', so that no provocations, no temptations, no seeds that
are sown by the devil could grow tares that would drown out the spiritual life
— the common spiritual life of the peoples of Rus' — and weaken the testimony
of our Church.
25/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Such is history, and it teaches us above all
that the Church must always proclaim the truth of God. Political tastes,
sympathies, antipathies are changing, various political groups, coalitions,
parties are being formed, everyone has their own goal, everyone goes their own
way. And the Church is outside of any party, because the very word
"party" means a part, that is, a part of the whole. And the Church is
not a part – it is for the whole people, and therefore no sympathy towards
certain political forces can be officially proclaimed as a church teaching and
cannot be officially proclaimed in a church sermon. What can be proclaimed? And
who can and should the Church support? All those politicians or public figures
who stand up for the unity of our entire people, for the unity of our Church,
for the true independence of the country from various powerful forces, whether
in the East, or in the West, or elsewhere on our planet. Because the Church is
afraid that political dependence can have a negative impact on the spiritual
life, as happened in the past. That is why the Church supports true independence
and all acts of power aimed at preserving this independence from political
forces outside our country. And this does not mean participation in politics -
it means concern for the well-being of people, for the preservation of our
authenticity, for the preservation of the Orthodox faith and those values
that our people still live by the grace of God. Those spiritual values that
come from our ancestors, those values for which our martyrs and new martyrs
of the Russian Church shed their blood.
Today, remembering the name of St. Philip, we
turn to him prayers so that by his intercession before the face of God, he
would save the Russian state from all misfortunes both from the outside and
from within, so that the unity of the people, the unity of our Church, would be
preserved, so that the government would have as its priority concern for the
preservation of the Fatherland ours as an independent state, as well as the
preservation of those values that are absorbed into the spiritual culture of
our people and which were largely formed under the spiritual influence of the
Russian Orthodox Church. Remembering the feat of St. Philip, today we
raise special prayers for the authorities, and for the army, and for our
people, so that our national life flows in peace, unanimity, spiritual purity
and faith, forming that inner strength that is capable of ensuring complete
independence and the freedom of our people.
22/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today we know that there are very big threats
to the world, to our country, and to the whole human race, because some crazy
people had the idea that the great Russian power, which has powerful weapons,
is inhabited by very strong people who from a generation in a generation have
always been motivated to win, who have never surrendered to any enemy, who have
always come out victorious - that they can either be defeated in the current
conditions, or, as
they say now, reformatted, that is, to impose on them certain
"values" that it is impossible to name values, so that they are
like everyone else and obey those who have the power to control most of the
world.
This desire to defeat Russia today has
acquired, as we know, very dangerous forms. We pray to the Lord that He will
enlighten those madmen and help them understand that any desire to destroy
Russia will mean the end of the world. But this is not the only thing
to be prayed for, but that instead of such madness the human race will acquire
some new consciousness. Consciousness of our interdependence,
consciousness of the fragility of the world in which we all live, and the need
to be all together and work for common values and goals that would be aimed
primarily at preserving life and, I would also add as an Orthodox Christian, at
the preservation of faith in God, without which all other values are either
deformed or simply reformatted into opposites and become not values, but
factors contributing to the destruction of human life.
This is such a worrying time. But we
believe that the Lord will not leave the Russian land, will not leave our
authorities, our Orthodox President, our army. That Russia will have
enough strength if necessary to protect its land and its people. But God
forbid that things do not come to such a showdown, that the Lord reconciles everyone, calms them
down and helps everyone work together to make the world a better place.
This is our prayer today, for world peace. But also about the well-being
of the holy churches of God, about the union of all. We pray that all
these menacing and exciting people's rumors, military rumors, will go into
oblivion, and that there will be peace in the world and the ability for
everyone to work together so that every untruth, every lie is expelled from
human relations.
19/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today is a joyful holiday, but some have tears
in their eyes. I cannot but speak about what is happening in Ukraine now:
exactly the same madness as in Russia after the revolution. Then in Russia the
Renovationist "church", artificially created by the godless
authorities, began to seize the churches of the genuine, grace-filled Russian
Orthodox Church. And all the cathedrals in St. Petersburg, the imperial
capital, were in the hands of the Renovationists, and with what a difficult
state of mind our Orthodox people passed by these churches! Many did not
believe that a reversal was possible. Such was the onslaught of the godless
authorities that it seemed that there would be no stone left unturned from
church life. But today we see that even where only the stones of the destroyed
churches remained, temples have been recreated, and new temples have been
erected in multitudes.
I don't think the wait is too long. God cannot be mocked (Gal. 6:7), and all the teachers of schism, the creators of schisms, and all those disguised “hierarchs” who are ashamed to look it, so even their appearance does not correspond to their rank, will be punished. And do you think that only we from here have this vision and this understanding of the reality that has developed today on Ukrainian soil? The Ukrainian people themselves see and understand everything! And we believe that all this will pass, otherwise it cannot be. After all, splits are not viable. Why? But because the grace of God is not there - emptiness, theatre, external ritual. What piety is there when all the canons are broken, when all the principles of the organization of the Orthodox Church are overthrown? Emptiness! But this emptiness is very dangerous for the spiritual life of the people.
And today we are with the pious Ukrainian
people, with those who are already bearing the stamp of both martyrdom and
confession. We pray for the Ukrainian bishops who are faithful to canonical
truth. We pray for those who are being expelled from churches today. We pray
first of all for the faithful people, that they will keep the Orthodox faith. We know for a fact that just as
the Renovationists disappeared, so the schismatics will disappear. As the
political hard times of the Soviet leaders, who raised their hand against the
Church, so the present authorities will not reign and rule over Ukraine. And I
think that it will not be long before things change. And our task, the task of
the Church is to pray for the Ukrainian land, for pious Ukrainian people, for
priests and bishops, for those who have taken the path of confession. To pray
also for those who were afraid, who disappeared from sight, who were called to
defend Orthodoxy - and as if disappeared. Where are they? Where have they gone?
What country are they in? God judge them all! But I am deeply convinced, and my
conviction is unshakable, that the Lord will not leave Ukrainian land, the land
of Kyiv-Pechersk ascetics, the land, covered and sprinkled with the blood of
new martyrs. And He will not abandon the Church, which, by her word and her
preaching, has laid the foundation of Christian life throughout Holy Russia. We
pray that the troubled times will come to an end as quickly as possible, that
peace will be established, that internecine strife will cease in the land of
Ukraine, and that no one will take advantage of the conflicts that have begun
in Ukraine in order to unleash an even greater war, in which forces hostile to
Russia will wish to involve our people. Let us ask the Lord that this cup
pass over us, that peace and prosperity may be preserved throughout the
territory of Holy Russia and that the Russian state, under the protection of
the Most Holy Mother of God, may safeguard itself from internecine strife and
from any invasion by foreign tribesmen.
In this principal cathedral of Holy Russia,
where the holy Fathers of our Church repose, one feels in a special way all the
complexity and all the dangers of what is now taking place in Russia, and at
the same time is strengthened with hope. Looking at these historical walls, in
front of the icons on which our pious predecessors prayed, we hope that the
grace of God will bow down to Russia and its spiritual unity will be restored,
the canonical system of Orthodoxy in Ukraine will be restored, and people will
again be communicated with the Holy Mysteries of Christ, will gain grace from
the other Mysteries of the Church, gaining strength to strive against all evil,
to strive for the Kingdom of God. Our prayer today is that peace and justice
will be restored in the land of Ukraine, that peace and rest will dwell over
all Rus'. Through the prayers of the saints in this church with their holy
relics and the prayers of all the saints who shone forth in the land of Russia,
may the Lord direct the further march of the Russian people along the
historical path prepared for them by God Himself.
08/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt of words after Great Vespers on
Christmas
Wars are all over the face of the earth, and in
the expanses of historical Rus' there is an internecine strife unleashed by other
forces. I think that we all deeply empathize with what is happening, but the
heart of the Patriarch is especially overwhelmed. And today, my special prayer
is for peace on the land of Ukraine, for the unity of our Church to be
preserved - despite the most powerful efforts and pressure that are exerted on
the episcopate, clergy, believers, so that the fabric of the united Russian
Orthodox Church, which emerged from Kyiv Baptismal font.
(…)
Prayer to God, communion with God, communion of
the Holy Mysteries of Christ is the highest priority, and if all this is put
in the first place, then everything else will work out, and peace and goodwill
will really appear in people, at least in the expanses of historical Russia, in
which extends the pastoral care of the Russian Orthodox Church.
I would like to once again thank you, Your
Eminence, and all of you, my dear Bishops, and in your person, the entire
episcopate of our Church, and in the person of the clergy, all the clergy of
our Church, and in your person, my dear brothers and sisters, — all Orthodox
people who make up the body of our Church. Once again, I would like to
accompany this gratitude with a prayer to the Lord and our Savior, that He
would bless our Church, protect it from schisms and divisions, renew our
strength, give us the ability to become His disciples not only by baptism, not
only by formal membership in the Church, but by sincere service to the Lord,
through which alone one can hope for the transformation of this world.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from message around the Christmas Tree
Today no one demands such sacrifices from us,
although there are still places, including in the expanses of historical Rus’,
where weapons are used, where people defend the homeland and die in peacetime.
We say to them: There is no greater love than if a man lays down his life for
his friends.
(…)
So I would like to wish all of us to love our
Fatherland, our people. It is the same love that often requires sacrifice, as
it does today on the battlefield. Well, after love for the Fatherland - love for your family, for dad,
mom, grandma, grandpa. What about at the top? And at the top is the love of
God.
(…)
Therefore, I congratulate all of you, my dear
ones, on the great holiday of the Nativity of Christ and would like to wish you
to have love in your heart for dad and mom, grandma and grandpa. And then try
to love those who are far away - through good deeds, through help. And
finally, always be ready to love the Motherland so much as to serve it, and in
some of the most formidable moments - I appeal primarily to boys who will
become adults - to stand up for her. May the Lord embrace us all on this
great and joyful feast of the Nativity of Christ, and God grant that each of us
feel these embraces. And they are felt in the temple when we pray, when our
heart beats joyfully, when we see next to us boys and girls like us, who also
pray with us and glorify the Heavenly Father.
And at the end of my words, I want to say again
and again: I wish you all peace and love - love for the Fatherland, love for
parents, love for each other. I wish you that the Divine Light, which came
into the world through the Nativity of Christ, resonates in your hearts with a
strong faith in God and a willingness to do good deeds that turn our life into
a bright, peaceful, prosperous and joyful one. May the Lord keep you all, my
dear, from all evil. Once again I wish peace, health, prosperity and God's help
to everyone and everyone on the joyful holiday of the Nativity of Christ! I
congratulate you heartily!
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpts from an interview
The priest has no right to take up arms. He
cannot even defend himself during hostilities, that is, the presence of a
priest in the Armed Forces during hostilities is a huge risk. If we take the
pre-revolutionary practice, then the regimental priest with a cross in his
hands began the attack. With the first ones who left the trenches, they went
towards the enemy; and priests most often perished, because this is a desired target
for the enemy. Today, our priests also lift the spirit and strengthen the faith
of our soldiers in the war zone. But I would also like to say that the priest
very much humanizes this difficult, radically negative sphere of human
existence. A priest in the army is someone who can listen, help with advice,
and pray together; one who does a lot of work with relatives. Because most
often wives, mothers, and children turn to clergy for support, because people
are very worried about their relatives, their loved ones, those who can lay
down their lives.
Therefore, I want to say again and again that
the priest does not take up arms. He continues to be a desirable and easy
target. And we know that Father Mikhail Vasilyev was followed, and this blow
was inflicted precisely in order to destroy him. Every priest who is in the
area of hostilities is aware that he is an easy and desired target, but no
one leaves from there until the Hierarchy recalls - everyone remains true to
their priestly oath and their pastoral duty.
I really appreciate the work of our clergy in
any extreme situation, but especially where the presence of a priest is very
important for the spiritual state of people - first of all, we are talking, of
course, about military personnel.
(…)
I believe in the strength of the spirit of the
Orthodox Ukrainian people. People are very strong in their faith, courageous,
very emotional. God grant that all these best qualities of the Ukrainian people
will help the Ukrainian country to overcome the deep spiritual crisis in which
the country found itself. It is not only a political crisis, but spiritual
crisis, too. And all these calls to democratize, westernize the country, of
course, turn heads of those, who connect these appeals with improvement of
material life of people. The rich live well in the West and if we go this way,
we will also live well. But on the same road, as we know, is the question of
the change of sexes, the critical attitude to religion and many things that
accompany the de-Christianization of Western society today. So I don't
undertake to judge whether this is politically correct or incorrect, it is not
my question - I judge all of this solely from a pastoral point of view. Will
Ukrainians put up with gender reassignment, will they put up with all the moral
relativism that has become part of the culture and politics of the Western
world? If they accept all this, they lose their identity, their authenticity,
they cease to be a holy land. What then is the deed of the saints? Kiev
Pechersk Lavra, Pochaev Lavra, all that monastic tradition? In fact, it is
undoubtedly a struggle with the Orthodox Church, which has always been and, God
willing, in the future will remain the great moral and spiritual force of the
Ukrainian people.
Russians and Ukrainians are one people, in your
opinion?
Undoubtedly. This is one people that came out
of the Kyiv Baptismal Font, but a very large people. From the White to the Black
Sea. And this immensity - it always caused fear, envy among others, and
therefore, from ancient times, external forces worked to divide this people, pull them apart, and even push one
part into another.
And, if you look at history, that's how it
happened. But the Orthodox Church has been and is the force that holds this
people together. That is why radical steps were taken at one time to weaken the
influence of the Church, and first of all, this was the creation of a union.
Indeed, the union greatly divided the people of Western and Southern Rus', but
not only did it divide, it led to bloody clashes. And where there is blood,
there is conflict for a long time.
Indeed, we are now on opposite sides of a great
confrontation, there is clearly a growing bitterness, and on the other side
hatred of everything Russian is being cultivated. But this year is the year of
our common history, as you said. We are one people and we share the same date -
the 1035th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, which we will celebrate this
year. Do you think we can, at least on the basis of this date, count on the
fact that we have some ways to overcome the split between the Russians and
Ukrainians?
The split is political. The fact that Ukraine
declared that it is radically changing the vector of its political and, I would
say, historical development and that this new vector does not coincide in any
way with the vector of Russia's development - that is the point. Here they are
trying to create some civilizational precondition for the division of people.
But to what extent this division can be brought to the depths of people's life
is a complicated question, although today in Ukraine everything is being done
to make Russia really an enemy in the eyes of Ukrainians and to make the
Russian people, the Russians become another people in the eyes of Ukrainians. On how successful all these
activities aimed at creating a chasm between the two parts of one nation will
be, of course, depends the future. But the Church must do everything to make
sure that the Ukrainians and the Russians did not become enemies in any way.
Well, thank God, we do not have such a
cultivation of hatred towards Ukrainians. We treat them as we used to, as we
are treating them now.
No cultivation of hatred.
We have a special attitude towards their
government.
Yes, we criticize the leadership, but also in
political categories. We do not stoop to any insults. We do not agree with the
political position of the leadership, but we are not talking about cultivating
a negative attitude to Ukraine and the Ukrainians, and I as the Patriarch of
All Russia am very attentive to it. For me it is one people, one Church. And
that is why, of course, the Patriarch and the Russian Orthodox Church are
attacked, because it is a factor of unity, not political, but spiritual. Just as we are united with the
Orthodox people who belong to our Church in the United States of America, in
Great Britain, in Western Europe, wherever. We are one Church, one people,
one praying community. But even this spiritual unity is too much for those who
want to dig a chasm between Russia and Ukraine, that is why the Church is under
attack.
But those who are digging a chasm between
Ukraine and Russia, they will probably never be able to do one thing - they
will not be able to abolish the Julian calendar. And this calendar is common
for Russians and Ukrainians. Thank God, and soon we will celebrate the feast of
Christmas together, at the same time. But how should this feast be? Is there
room in this feast for joy in the time of sorrow?
When we say "holyday," we already
mean joy. Because any celebration becomes a celebration when people celebrate,
but it is impossible to celebrate with sorrow. Celebration is a light
emotion, light feelings and church holidays have a special effect on the human
soul, on its conscience, creating a special experience of joy, a quiet
prayerful joy, and this joy will be one for all, for our brothers and sisters
in Ukraine, for all our brothers and sisters, who live in Russia and for all
our Church.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
And when I say this, I think first of all
about our dear Ukraine, where schisms challenge the Church itself and the
possibility to carry out worthy service to the people and society of Ukraine.
We believe that through the prayers of saints, through the prayers of the
Church, peace will come between all the peoples of Holy Russia and peace
wherever it is broken today. But for that one condition must be observed:
the King of Peace, the Lord of Peace must be with us, therefore the expulsion
of the Christian faith from the lives of people, creation of godless
technocratic civilization, which does not need God, - is the most terrible,
that can be imagined, because the philosophy of life, based on human
omnipotence, expels God from human souls, from interpersonal relations.
07/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from Christmas message
Bowing before the humble majesty of the miracle
of the Incarnation and glorifying the Saviour who has come into the world, we
cannot help but worry about the military events taking place today, darkening
the holy Christmas celebration, for, as the apostle notes, if one member
suffers, all members suffer with it (1 Corinthians 12:26). In these trials
that have befallen the peoples of historical Rus', it is especially important
for us to confirm our loyalty to our Christian calling and to show love for
each other. It sometimes seems to us that good is weak and defenceless, and
little depends on our little effort. However, it is not.
06/01/2023 (Source)
Appeal for Christmas truce
I, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus',
appeal to all parties involved in the internecine conflict with an appeal to
cease fire and establish a Christmas truce from 12:00 on January 6 to 24:00 on
January 7, so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on
Christmas Day Christ.
05/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
During the past centuries, if we count from the
time of the holiness of Peter, Metropolitan of Kiev, of Moscow and All Russia, how
many attempts have been made by forces hostile to both our Church and Holy
Russia, to divide the Church, to split it up, to set one part of the Church
against another, in order to facilitate the designs of political forces which
were outside Russia! Russia was frightening in its strength, in its size and, I
am not afraid to say, in its spiritual identity, in its spiritual freedom.
There were practically no centres, which could rule Russia - neither political
nor spiritual. And, with all respect to the Patriarch of Constantinople, to the
Mother Church, which was carefully preserved in the Russian Orthodox Church,
there was no direct dependence and subordination, because it was impossible to
cover the enormous distance from Byzantium to Moscow, to this Borovitsky Hill
in order to govern the Church of Russia. But the distance between Moscow and
Byzantium did not mean a break with the spiritual tradition of the Eastern
Church. On the contrary, the spirituality of Byzantium, its rich heritage,
Sainted Basil the Great, Saint Gregory the Theologian, Saint John Chrysostom,
and other holy fathers, who shone forth in the Byzantine Church, were received
with both soul and heart and thought by our people and by our Church, and the
first readings for our people were from their works. On their words and on
their wisdom our clergy and our faithful people were educated. And this
spiritual communion with Byzantium continued unbroken for a long time, until difficult
times came for Byzantium, which fell under foreign religious influence and even
domination, and until many other forces began to work to divide the one body
of the Orthodox Church.
And today, as you know, our relations with
Constantinople are not easy. Not because the Russian Church wants it, but
because it wants and strives to be free from all sorts of foreign influences, no matter how they spread to our
people and our Church. And therefore, a certain detachment that takes place
today is not generated by theological differences, but by our certain caution
so that other influences that are really dangerous for the Russian Orthodox
Church are not present in our lives. But we believe that the Lord will
incline His mercy and full communion of all the Local Orthodox Churches will be
restored. Because this division is what the forces hostile to Orthodoxy are
longing for, and many efforts and all sorts of strategies have been aimed at
tearing the Orthodox East away from Russia, from the Russian Church! I say this
not by hearsay and not by guesswork - I speak on the basis of the documents
that were in my hands. It was a conscious plan - using various, very minor,
however, disagreements, to make sure that an abyss lay between Russia and the
heirs of Byzantium.
03/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today is
the Civil New Year. We are entering a new year of God's goodness, and, of
course, our prayer is for peace, for the Lord to prevent the destructive
development of international relations, which today have reached the most
dangerous point. We pray that there will be no war, that common sense will
prevail and that people with different political views and beliefs will be able
to find a common basis for a peaceful and just life.
(…)
God
bless Russia, our country. We thank God that today Russia is a country where
faith is strengthened. Many rich, prosperous people in other parts of the world
look with surprise at our Motherland and cannot understand: what is a modern
advanced country in which faith is being revived? For many, this is a shock,
but for us it is a symbol of hope and faith that if our Fatherland continues
to develop like this, if we combine faith with education, culture, science,
technology, with everything that gives material strength and well-being, then
Russia will be invincible and will become an even more striking example of
how modern man can combine faith and knowledge, God and matter, spiritual life
and material life.
Such was
the fate of our homeland. In its time, it was Russia that saved the world
from the terrible plague of fascism, and it was primarily thanks to Russian
sacrifices that the victory was achieved. Perhaps today, the Lord, without
calling us to such terrible sacrifices, calls us to ensure that our spiritual
life, our faith, the combination of faith with knowledge, the penetration of
faith in all spheres of public life, we will help the world to find salvation,
as we did when we defeated fascism. It may be that the Lord chooses our Fatherland,
to which the angry and spiteful eyes of those who do not share our convictions,
who are alien to us both in faith and in the moral principles of life turn
today. On the other side are misunderstandings, wariness, often evil feelings
and thoughts; but we, following our own historical path, must keep faith in
our hearts and do everything to become mentally, morally and physically
stronger, developing all aspects of our public and state life.
01/01/2023
(Source)
Excerpt from the journals of the synod meeting
On December 4, 2022, President of Ukraine V. A.
Zelensky announced a number of repressive measures against the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church. Draft laws that contradict international legal norms and imply
discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its restriction of
rights have been submitted for consideration by the highest legislative body of
Ukraine. Against
this background, illegal actions against the structures and members of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church intensified in Ukraine. Diocesan administrations,
monasteries, and parishes are subjected to searches, while clergy, monks, and
laity are subjected to humiliating searches and arrests under far-fetched
pretexts, and "personal sanctions" are imposed on them. The
provocations of schismatics and their seizure of churches of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church have become more frequent.
Growing pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church has been accompanied by an unbridled anti-church media campaign by
prominent politicians, government officials and public figures in the spirit of
the anti-religious campaigns of the Soviet past.
RESOLVED:
1. To express support to the bishops,
clerics, monastics and laity, striving to preserve the unity and canonical
structure of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church even in the current difficult
circumstances.
2. Consider it important to draw the
attention of the Local Orthodox Churches, representatives of Christian
denominations and the world religious community, as well as international human
rights organizations to violations of the rights of believers in Ukraine.
(…)
Report of His Grace Metropolitan of
Petrozavodsk and Karelian Konstantin, Chairman of the Synodal Liturgical
Commission, on the preparation of prayers in the Commission for soldiers in
battle for the living, wounded, captured and missing.
RESOLVED:
Approve for home reading:
a) a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos for
soldiers on the battlefield;
b) a prayer to the mother to the Most Holy
Theotokos for a warrior on the battlefield;
c) a prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ for a
soldier wounded on the battlefield;
d) a prayer to the mother to the Most Holy
Theotokos for the healing of a soldier who was wounded on the battlefield;
e) a prayer to the mother (relatives) to the
Most Holy Theotokos for the deliverance of soldiers (warriors), in captivity of
beings (existing);
f) a prayer to the saints for the deliverance
of soldiers who are in captivity;
g) a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos for the
missing soldiers.
29/12/2022 (Source)
Patriarch’s report to synod
In February of this year, when many people
heard – in the words of Scripture – about wars and rumours of war (cf. Matthew
24:6), they were confused, bewildered and afraid. Many people are still in the
grip of such feelings today. There is nothing surprising in this. After all,
the Saviour's warning that "all things must come to pass" is often
not perceived by a person who has long lived in peaceful circumstances as
referring directly to the time in which he lives and to him personally. Alas, for
a very long time many people also failed to take into account the fact that
relatively nearby, just hundreds or even tens of kilometres from our homes, the
internecine war unleashed in 2014 against civilians in the Donbass region was
waged. This war was started by those in Kyiv who allowed the diabolical
darkness into their hearts and blindly followed instructions to sow enmity
among the united people of Holy Russia, united by a common history, culture and
traditions. As time passed, it became abundantly clear that Russia's
peacemaking efforts to end this war were consistently sabotaged by both the
Ukrainian authorities and Western countries, and further developments
eloquently testify to this. Alas, the peace talks did not stop this strife; on
the contrary, the talks were cynically used on one side of the conflict to
accumulate forces and further escalate. Moreover, it became obvious that those
who kindled the fire of internecine strife in Ukraine sought, and still seek,
to spread it to all the countries of the Russian world, to the entire canonical
territory of our Church - to Russia, to Belarus, to the Baltic states, to
Moldova, to the countries of Transcaucasia and Central Asia. The consequence of
this was Russia's entry into an armed confrontation, which has been going on
for 8 years, to protect the people of Donbas from arbitrariness and violence.
I think it is also important to note the
following: the hostilities we are witnessing today are the consequence of a
long civilisational conflict. Reflecting on the circumstances in which this
conflict began, we can notice, among other things, an undeniable religious
dimension in them: an irrational hatred of the peoples professing Orthodoxy.
And if we now turn our mental gaze to the past, we cannot but ask the question:
is it not this hatred that caused the entire might of the Western war machine
to descend on Yugoslavia in 1999? Is not it the reason why, through economic or
political blackmail, through the so-called colour revolutions, a wedge is
consistently driven between the countries whose peoples are the bearers of
Orthodoxy? The
manifestation of this hatred has been the consistent persecution of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the fostering of schisms by the Ukrainian state
authorities, subsequently, unfortunately, supported by the Primates of some
Local Churches, who carried out the will of the international curators. The
source of the internecine war in Ukraine was the ill will of people who are
hostile to the Cross of Christ, Christian freedom and the common heritage of
the Dnieper font. The ill will of people who for years and even decades have
nurtured divisions, enmity and hatred in the united Orthodox people of Holy
Russia, divided by political boundaries. How much hatred has spilled out in
this time onto internet pages, into the media, even into communication between
relatives!
We say with sorrow today that the present
strife is internecine, because it involves people who belong to a people united
in their faith and traditions. As Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church,
whose flock is on both sides of the line of battle, I am deeply saddened by
what is happening, and especially by the suffering of civilians in both Russia
and Ukraine. However, we must bear witness with clarity that the blame for this
lies first and foremost with those who set out to destroy the unity of Holy Rus’,
the unity of our people and our faith.
As we reflect on the causes and consequences of
military conflict, we should turn our thoughts to the warriors. As we
admonish them, we pray for them as people who are facing mortal danger and
extremely difficult moral choices. We ask God to help them; we pray that the
Lord protect them from injury, captivity and destruction, but especially from
sin: from hard-heartedness, from harming peaceful people, from inhuman
treatment of others, from cowardice and betrayal. May the Lord protect our
soldiers on the difficult paths on which they are nowadays walking at the risk
of their lives.
How important it is that in hostilities there
should be priests alongside soldiers, praying with them, pastoring them,
instructing them in the Gospel, confessing and receiving the Holy Communion of
Christ. May the Lord and Provider of all creation protect with His grace all
our brother pastors, who selflessly, risking their lives, share the danger of
the front together with the soldiers on the front line, leaving their homes and
their families, at times many in number, to escape all evil. I express my
special and deep gratitude to them.
Remembering the clergy who laid down their
lives for others (cf. John 15:13), I testify that, regardless of whether or not
the state provides assistance, the Church has not and will not abandon their
families, as well as the families of those clergymen who - God forbid, of
course - may suffer in the future. I charge the leadership of the Synodal
Department for Co-operation with the Armed Forces, the Synodal Department for
Relations with Society and the Mass Media, as well as the Legal Department of
the Moscow Patriarchate, to step up their co-operation with representatives of
the state in order to provide social guarantees for military clergy and their
families.
I would like to take this opportunity to answer
the question that worries many people, as to whether clergymen are subject to
mobilization in the case of the announcement of mobilization. Unfortunately,
the law does not currently provide for a deferment of mobilization for members
of the clergy. At the same time, the holy canons of the Church strictly
forbid clergymen to join the military service. Thus the 83rd Rule of the
Apostles states: "A bishop, presbyter or deacon, who exercises himself in
military service [...] shall be expelled from the sacred ranks. For to Caesar
the things are Caesar's and to God the things are God's", and the 7th Rule
of the IV Ecumenical Council enjoins "the clergy and monks once ordained
must not be enrolled in military service [...]. Those who dare to do so and do
not return with repentance to that which they first chose for God are to be
anathematized". In reality, despite the loopholes in the law, it is
obvious to many in the leadership of our country that the task of the clergy is
not to take part in armed hostilities with weapons in their hands. In this
connection, during the recent partial mobilization, in cooperation with the
leadership of the Ministry of Defence it was possible to come to a temporary
solution, thanks to which the clergy was granted a deferment from mobilization
for the entire period of their priestly ministry. At the same time, I think
it is important that this decision should be secured. I have already issued a
corresponding instruction to the Legal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate,
which I request, together with the two aforementioned synodal departments, to
work closely on this task.
Dear participants of the diocesan assembly! It
is important to realize that the events we are experiencing are also directly
related to very serious threats to the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. We
pray with you at each Liturgy that the Lord would hasten His faithful children,
zealous for Church unity, would strengthen them in the spirit of brotherly
love, and would deliver them from trouble; that He would overthrow the schemes
of those who, in the darkness of minds and hardness of hearts, tear away the
Lord's Robe, that is, the Church of the Living God (cf. Prayer for Holy Rus').
I am convinced that each of you puts all your strength and soul into this
prayer. At the same time, for those who live in the free dispensation of Church
life, it is sometimes difficult to imagine to what extent this hardening of
hearts can extend, and how difficult it is nowadays in some countries to remain
committed to the unity of the Church. Hatred of Russia, hatred of our
centuries-old spiritual community, which is declared "spiritual
justification of Russian imperialism", hatred of the identity of
Orthodoxy, rejecting all attempts to "adjust" our worldview to the
standards of the Western secular and globalist project, inexhaustible streams
of slander against the Church, on the Patriarch, on bishops and clergymen - all
this is poured out daily in abundance on many of our brothers outside of Russia
through propaganda in the media, through statements by state and public
figures, through statements by false brethren who themselves have already
become captives of ideas and interests alien to our faith.
This directly affects our dioceses and parishes
in Western countries; it particularly affects the Baltics and to some extent
Moldova, but in Ukraine the darkening of minds and the hardening of hearts of
the destroyers of church unity reaches its highest possible level. There it is not just expressed in
hostile words and publications - there the hatred is expressed in direct
persecution: in forceful seizures of churches, in beatings inflicted on clergy
and laity and threats to their lives, in mass searches and
"counterintelligence activities" in diocesan offices, churches and
monastic convents, in the institution of criminal cases, in calls for a
complete ban on the activities of the canonical Orthodox Church - now not only
in individual regions, but also in the state as a whole at the level of its leadership.
The cost of preserving ecclesiastical unity
thus becomes very high for its defenders. For some, alas, this price was too
high for them to bear, and some were even imbued with the rhetoric of the
persecutors.
We mourn over this, for if one member suffers
in the body of the Lord, "all the members suffer with him" (1 Cor.
12:26). We continue to pray for and with our brothers in Christ, that the Lord
will increase their strength to bear the heavy cross. We pray for peace and an
end to all strife. In justly advocating the unity of the Holy Mother Church
and not remaining blind to attempts at schism, made among other things within
the Church and exhorting those who stray from it to return to the path of
canonical truth, let us avoid every hasty and condemnatory word. Let it not
come out of our mouths, particularly in these trying times! Rather let us
ask the Lord that none of us should be shaken in the event that the day of
trial should come for us. Let us remember the words of the Apostle:
"Whoever thinks himself upright, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor.
10:12).
You know that the Council of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, held in Kyiv on May 27 removed all mention of the Russian
Orthodox Church and the Patriarch from its statutes, except for the reference
to the 1990 edict of His Holiness Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia,
which gave the Ukrainian Orthodox Church wide rights of self-government. In
many churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after this Council the
commemoration of the Patriarch's name, provided by the canons of the Church,
ceased.
You also know, how the Holy Synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church responded to it in its decisions of May 29 and June 7.
The Holy Synod testified that, for the plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church,
the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is hitherto defined by the already
mentioned diploma of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, which expresses the
conciliar consent of the whole episcopate, expressed by the Council of Bishops
on 25-27 October 1990. The Holy Synod stressed that any revision of the
aforementioned status is possible only within the framework of the legitimate
conciliar procedure stipulated by the Charter of our Church. The Charter, which
was adopted in its time with the participation of all Ukrainian bishops. The
Synod warned that actions that disagree with the statutes and canons of the
Church can lead to a new schism and noted that the decisions in Kiev were taken
under unprecedented pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's bishops, clergy,
monastics and laity by government representatives, dissenters and extremists.
The Synod expressed support for all members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
who under these conditions continue to consider it their duty to preserve the
canonical order and to observe the canonical norm of commemoration of the
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia during masses. The Holy Synod called upon
the whole body of the Church to pray for the preservation of unity, for an
early end to the bloodshed and for the provision of effective assistance to all
those touched by the disaster.
I ask all of you in your public statements and
assessments of current events in Ukraine, as well as in your correspondence and
conversations with clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church not to go beyond
what the Holy Synod has determined. Lest someone's inconsiderate and
self-righteous words should further harm the unity of our Church, inflict
further wounds on those who are already in distress, and add to the suffering
of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Heaven willing, peace will come and the
possibility of unhindered and unrestricted conciliar consultations will return, then the fullness of the Church
will discuss how and what occurred during the difficult times we are
experiencing and how archpastors should proceed in order to reign true to the
word of Christ.
Most Reverend Archpastors, venerable shepherds!
As we ponder the root causes and far-reaching consequences of the current armed
confrontation, we must take into account that not all of our compatriots are
united in their understanding, at least for now. This is partly true for the
parishioners of our churches as well, since our parishes reflect almost all the
diversity of our society. Yes, many parishioners are actively involved in supporting
the soldiers, but there are also those among them who distance themselves from
the decisions of the state or even leave their homeland. All Orthodox people,
whatever their views on political issues, even when we do not agree with them
on these issues, remain our flock. Therefore, the main task of a pastor in
a parish is, as it has been for centuries, to serve the Divine Liturgy,
administer the other sacraments and services, and preach the word of God. You
may be approached by parishioners with a request to give an assessment of the
present situation. Remember that a priest is called first and foremost to be
the voice of the Church. And if he is not sure that he is expressing the
position of the Church on a particular issue, it is better not to speak at all,
but to abstain. In any case, do not engage in inappropriate verbiage, which
can easily lead to unrighteous anger, and if you cannot find the right words,
it is better to refer the person to a more experienced pastor or archpastor.
The person inquiring can always be encouraged to focus on prayer, works of
mercy and helping those who are most in need at this time.
With special care and solicitude I urge you to
reach out to those who come with the grief of losing loved ones in the
fighting. Such people should first of all be invited to pray together, to hold
a requiem service, and to encourage them with a kind pastoral word. We should
help the bereaved to find consolation from above in prayer, which surpasses all
human words.
[Lists material aid provided to refugees and
victims of the war]
We should all be aware that the humanitarian
crisis is likely to continue for a long time to come, so it is important for us
not to falter in our efforts. The circumstances of the time call us, with
particular force, to fulfil the commandment of the Saviour to love our
neighbour, to have mercy, compassion and sacrifice.
(…)
There is no need to be shy. It is our duty,
when pointing out sin, to say, "It is sin," even when it comes to
questions from high ranking people. That is the prophetic ministry of the
Church. We are to proclaim the truth of God, regardless of the faces. Of
course, we can say it in different ways: we can say it with pastoral love, or
we can say it with intonations that will hurt people. But in any case, evil is
evil and vice is vice, and the Church must speak about it. Love for the
sinner should not be confused with indulgence in sin and vice, with
hypocritical respect for a person's sinful choices, with so-called political
correctness.
22/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Hearing this news [Swedish invasion of Russian
Baltic coast], he left the temple, crossed himself and said amazing words:
"God is not in power, but in truth." He had very little chance of
defeating those who were much stronger, better armed, had more knowledge about
military affairs, but the words “God is not in power, but in truth” were
vividly displayed in everything that then happened. Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky
with a small retinue on the banks of the Neva inflicts a crushing defeat on the
Swedes and protects Russia from aggression from the Baltic Sea.
This victory was of historical significance,
but the question arises. At that time, the country was occupied by the
Tatar-Mongols, and the holy prince Alexander, like all Russian princes, had to
go to the khan, bring gifts. Why did he not join the fight against the
Tatar-Mongols? Of
course, because the strength of the Novgorod squad was incommensurable with the
strength of the eastern army, but also because Prince Alexander Nevsky,
despite his young age, managed to see where the real danger came from. Eastern
conquerors were only interested in the material factor. They needed
tribute, and they collected it, but they did not interfere at all in the inner
life. They were indifferent to what god the Russians believed in, whom they
worshiped, what were their internal state and religious arrangements and
customs. It was important for them to collect tribute, and this limited
their role as occupiers. But those who came from the West did not need our
tribute - they needed our souls, our minds, our political will. And this danger
was seen by the young prince Alexander Nevsky and understood with whom to
fight, not sparing his life. Having no chance to win, he utterly defeated the
Swedes, and it was really a great victory that protected the Russian land from
occupation, which could damage its spiritual life.
The Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky accomplished
many important deeds, won many victories over the enemy, who, by his possible
occupation of the Russian land, could bring spiritual death, change the
spiritual, religious, cultural code of the country. Now we are talking about
all this in modern categories of thought, Alexander Nevsky did not use and did
not know such a language, but with his mind, his heart, his intuition, if you
like, he saw the real danger. And our people have retained true sovereignty, so
that even the most terrible world wars have not been able to inflict spiritual
harm on them. Much blood was shed, but the example of Alexander Nevsky even in
the terrible years of the Great Patriotic War inspired our soldiers to defend
not only the wealth of our land, not only political sovereignty, but also our
spiritual sovereignty, our faith, our tradition,
Remembering the holy noble prince Alexander
Nevsky, we lift up prayers so that, standing before the Lord, he will protect
our country today. We have entered a period of very difficult relations with
a number of countries, and God grant that the mercy of God would take away our
suffering and sorrow from our Fatherland, avert the gravest consequences for
national life. Today we offer prayers to St. Alexander Nevsky with the same
request with which many generations of Orthodox people offered prayers to him
when they encountered a dangerous force that could radically affect the spiritual
life of the people.
We believe that through the prayers of the holy
noble prince Alexander Nevsky, the Lord will protect our Fatherland today, and
keep us all in peace. All of us, that is, all people on both sides of the
borders, because there can be no peace in one place when there is a heavy war
in another. Through
the prayers of those who put a lot of effort into establishing peace in our
Fatherland, peace, tranquility, and justice reigned in human hearts, and the
peace of God descended on the troubled, so complicated, contradictory modern
world.
06/12/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
All this is very difficult; but when it comes
to the resettlement of an entire people, then, of course, this is a special
feat of the spirit. And, probably, he would never have been so successful if
not for the Orthodox faith. Unlike many conquerors who conquered Africa,
North and South America and, colonizing these lands, brought violence, death
and destruction, nothing like this happened in Russia. The question may arise:
why? And the answer is very simple: the Orthodox faith. People brought up in
the Orthodox faith could not bear death, destruction, fires, violence - this
simply did not correspond to the spiritual dispensation of a Russian person.
(…)
The Russians came and did not commit those
terrible atrocities that the colonialists usually commit—after all, the
conscience was Orthodox!
04/12/2022 (Source)
Words during his birthday celebration
You and I, dear Bishops and Fathers, are
responsible before God for human hearts, and therefore, we are at the forefront
today. Do not distance yourself from this responsibility - neither from
patriotic education, nor from personal participation in the nourishment of our
army, volunteers. We must support them in word, deed and materially. And we, as
a Church, must take part in the struggle of our Fatherland against world evil,
against this leprosy, against this antichrist movement that can destroy both
the whole world and Russia.
Therefore, as a Patriarch, I call all of you
to wakefulness, to the multiplication of strength. We need to strengthen the
faith of our people, inspire soldiers, work with our intelligentsia, with the
media, so that the word of the Church spreads and helps people live, work, and
fight for the Motherland.
Remembering what the word of God says in
relation to the coming of the Antichrist into the world, we can say that today
Russia is a restrainer. And this means that all the forces of the Antichrist
will be thrown at our country. What is the core of spiritual resistance in our
country? Undoubtedly, the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, you and I, brethren,
do not expect easy times. We need to mobilize. Everyone must fulfill his duty
to the maximum, go where we did not go yesterday, to those with whom only
yesterday we did not know how to speak correctly. Today we must work, realizing
that we are on the front flank, on the most important line of spiritual defense
of our people and our country.
And may the Lord help us all to rethink our
behavior, our way of life, our habits. To go where we may not have even thought
of going yesterday. May the Lord help us all so that together with everyone
who loves the Motherland, we can today stand up for the Fatherland and do
everything in order to gain victory.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on his birthday
There is no greater need today than peace and
the calming of internecine strife in the expanses of historical Rus'. And there
is nothing more important today to protect our Russian Fatherland from all
sorts of slander and aspirations to deprive our country of independence, true
sovereignty, the ability to think the way our people desire and act in
accordance with national interests.
There is a lot of tension around these topics
today, and all of you, my dear ones, know about it. The Church does not
participate in politics in any way, but takes to heart the sorrow of people,
the pain of her people, and, of course, today our special prayer is for peace,
for prosperity and tranquility in the Russian land, for an end to internecine
strife, for the admonition of those of our brothers, who, driven by a dark
third-party force, are working to divide the single body of the Russian
Orthodox Church. But we believe that the unity of the Church and the
spiritual unity of all the people of Holy Rus' will be preserved, because we
pray for this, we work for this, and we know that all the saints who shone in
the Russian land, all the generations that preceded us, pray together with us,
in particular those who passed through trials of internecine strife, divisions
and civil wars. We have strong prayer books,
Today we are living through really difficult
times, but there is a good Russian proverb: a terrible dream, but God is
merciful. A dream is something that is unreal, something that cannot truly
destroy a person's life. And many conflicts do not actually have sufficient
force to destroy the national spiritual life of the entire people of Holy Rus'.
We know that in the past everything happened in Rus' - internecine strife,
clashes between brothers, the division of a single state; and in order not to
repeat what so dramatically weakened the strength of Rus'-Russia, we must pray
today for the unity of all our people, the Orthodox people, the children of the
Russian Orthodox Church, living in Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus, and
in many other countries. The Prayer of the Righteous Can Accomplish
Much(see James 5:16), and the prayer of the Church can accomplish even more. Therefore,
I call on all of you to pray for the unity of historical Holy Rus', for the
unity of our Church, for victory over all opponents, both external and
internal, who seek to use the current political conditions to weaken, and
perhaps destroy Holy Rus'.
(…)
I would like to express my gratitude to the
President of our country, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, with whom the
Patriarch, who represents the entire Church in these contacts with the
President, has unanimity on very important issues of our time. I would like to express gratitude
to the President and all authorities for the conditions in which the service of
the Russian Orthodox Church is carried out in the Russian Federation today. As
you know, now this ministry is not limited to the walls of churches, but has
gone out into the world, into society, into the people. The Church is
actively involved in the education system, in the work of the Armed Forces, in
relations with our intelligentsia, with the world of science, and, perhaps,
there is not a single important direction in public life, wherever the Church
is not present and wherever our people do not manifest themselves to it with
attention and kindness. This indicates that that we live in a different
era. We went through confrontation, persecution, sorrow for the Christians
of Russia, and today there is an opportunity, starting from our Christian
convictions, to actively participate in the creation of our Fatherland.
But I would like to once again especially
emphasize the importance of preserving the unity of the Russian Orthodox
Church, the importance of each bishop working in his place, really not sparing
his life. So that every priest, looking at the example of the archpastor, also
carries out his ministry in the parish. So that every monastic realizes his
special responsibility - by the power of prayer, obedience, and his feat to
support the spiritual life of the people. And I believe that Russia, which
has never bowed before any adversary, will then be invincible, just as all Holy
Rus' will be invincible.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Thanks after speech in his honour on his birthday
We must be faithful to the Lord. We must be
united within our Church. We must pay special attention to the education of
children and youth, combining Orthodox education with patriotic education.
Because there can be no love for one's neighbour without love for one's
Fatherland. I would urge all of you to perceive in this way the time in which
the Lord commanded you and me to live.
20/11/2022 (Source)
Words at the start of a meeting of the Supreme Church
Council
We have gathered today to discuss the current
issues that are on the agenda. But our meeting is taking place
in a difficult context, in which our Fatherland, and our Church, and many
countries are today. Indeed, in the canonical space of the Russian Church,
hostilities are being carried out, in a sense, internecine strife, accompanied
by losses, and, as everyone knows, one of the losses affected us very closely
and very strongly. This is the death of Father Mikhail Vasiliev, who was a
very active participant in the pastoral work in the Armed Forces and in the
full sense of the word did not spare his stomach, being at the forefront. One thing I saw while performing
the funeral service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, testifies to that
great recognition, of the love that military personnel felt for Father Michael. Father
Michael died on the battlefield, remaining true to his pastoral duty and
priestly oath. Therefore,
let's start our meeting with the proclamation of ‘Eternal memory’ to him.
Yesterday I ordered that, until the youngest
child of Father Michael comes of age, his family should be paid his salary from
the parish where he served. But, of course, no material factors can lower the level of that grief
and those experiences that the family of Father Mikhail has faced today. I
really hope that he will remain in our prayers, and I encourage all those who
can help, including support his family, to such good deeds.
10/11/2022 (Source)
Words during funeral service for a chaplain
killed in Ukraine
Of course, in order to carry out priestly
service in the Armed Forces, every clergyman needs to realize that at any
moment, remaining next to those who defend the Motherland, he can lose his
life. That is why the special attitude in the Church to those servicemen who
are today defending the Motherland shoulder to shoulder. That is why the
special attitude of the Church to those clergymen who stand shoulder to
shoulder together with the soldiers, defending the Motherland.
Father Michael lived a rich life. He managed to
do a lot. But all his deeds, which were constantly associated with certain
dangers, were simultaneously dedicated to both the Church and his Motherland.
But this combination of love for the Motherland and the Church is an ideal, and
he embodied this ideal in his life and remained faithful to this ideal even to
death.
09/11/2022 (Source)
Sermon
Every time we gather for worship as the Church
of God, as a single community of faith, we pray, and the words of the prayers
that the priest reads, and the words of the litanies that the deacon says, call
us to pray not only about our own, but also about many other things. In
particular, every time we are called to pray for the authorities and the army,
that is, for those who bear special responsibility for the fate of the country.
And this prayer should not be mechanical. We must not ignore these petitions, especially
when the people face dangers face to face – such dangers that defy the very
existence of our country.
Today, too, we are going through such dangers
and we ask the Lord and the Queen of Heaven, Who, we believe, covers all of
Rus' with Her sovereign Mantle, so that She saves our people and all the
peoples of Rus' from the dangerous internecine strife imposed from the outside.
Unfortunately, not all politicians are smart enough to understand
where the wind is blowing from and what is behind this desire of powerful
forces outside of Rus' to excite people to internecine strife. There is only
one thing behind this - the desire to weaken Holy Rus'. When I say this, I mean
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, which, according to the outstanding ascetic of
piety Lavrenty of Chernigov, are Holy Rus'.
So, we must clearly understand that we have
entered into such an era. And this is not only a provocation of
hostilities, but a diabolical temptation aimed at pushing the fraternal people
into internecine strife. And therefore, today our common prayer, the prayer of
the Russian Orthodox Church, whose children are Russians, Ukrainians,
Belarusians, and all Orthodox people who live in the expanses of historical
Rus', that all internecine strife cease, that the enemy’s slanders disappear,
evaporated, passed away, and for Rus' to develop as a powerful Orthodox
community of people, able to oppose their spiritual life and their spiritual
experience to extremely dangerous temptations that corrupt the human soul and
push it into the abyss of sin. These temptations, these temptations today are
testing the strength of Orthodox people,
Of course, a special responsibility falls on
those who are entrusted with the duty to defend the borders of our Motherland,
because they can aim anywhere, but they will hit Russia. Today it is a
kind of pillar and ground of the truth (see 1 Tim. 3:15). These words were
spoken in relation to the Church, but our believing people, having accepted the
word of God with their mind and heart, brushing aside many political, cultural,
economic temptations throughout history and remaining free from these temptations,
is in itself something to be a pillar of truth. Only God grant that we all hold
on to the Orthodox faith, refrain from sin, so that we can be such pillars of
truth, perceiving the word of God and including it in our consciousness, our
heart and our life.
Today we prayed for all our servicemen and, of
course, especially for our guards. We prayed that the Lord would give
strength to those who are called to defend the Motherland, strengthen their
will and, most importantly, strengthen in them the consciousness of the
rightness of the deed that every soldier does, standing up for the defense of
his Fatherland. His parents, his family and his land, which the Lord gave to
all of us, the inhabitants of Russia.
I would like again and again from the bottom of
my heart to wish the high representatives of our Guards, the Armed Forces and
all the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to have, first of all, spiritual
strength. Because where, for some reason, another force can weaken, only
the strength of the spirit makes it possible to win. Once again I want to say
that the very concept of “spirit” is not a material concept. Surprisingly, even
unbelieving Marxists spoke about the strength of the spirit, calling for a
strong spirit. But how could one call for a strong spirit when one did not
believe in the spirit? But today we believe in the spirit. We believe that a
person has not only a material, physical body, but also an immortal spirit, in
which all this moral force lives, capable of moving a person to lay down his soul
for his neighbors. Not in the
brain, not in the liver, not in the lungs, in no other way is this strength – it
is in the human spirit. Unfortunately, for many decades, those in power
have rejected the right of our people to have a soul, but today we all have the
opportunity to believe in the Lord, and I thank our authorities, and our Armed
Forces, and our Orthodox intelligentsia, teachers, and not least our pious
clergy for strengthening the strength of the spirit of our people.
It is the strength of the spirit that I would
like to wish today to our guards, and the Armed Forces, the clergy and all the
believing people. The stronger the spirit, the more power the people
have to resist external and sometimes internal dangerous destructive
influences. And may the Lord help us in this way, and not otherwise, to go
through our life's career, strengthening spiritually and thereby serving both
the Church and our Fatherland. Amen.
06/11/2022 (Source)
Message to Vladimir Putin on National Unity Day
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on
National Unity Day.
The history of this holiday is inextricably
linked with the memory of the difficult times for Russia, which our ancestors
were able to overcome by rallying around national shrines and realizing the
responsibility for the fate of the people and the future of their country.
Celebrating this day in honor of the Kazan Icon
of the Mother of God, we testify with gratitude to the many mercies of the Lord
shown to our ancestors in the past, honor the memory of the heroes who defended
the freedom and independence of the Motherland, and hope for help from above in
building a peaceful and prosperous life. Now the Russian Orthodox
Church lifts up solemn prayers for our God-protected country, the authorities,
the army and the people, so that the Lord overthrows the plans of all those who
have taken up arms against Holy Rus', and affirms in people the spirit of
brotherly love and peace.
I am grateful to you for your continued
attention to the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate, for your personal
contribution to the harmonization of church-state relations. I hope that
such cooperation will continue to develop, bearing good fruit, contributing to
the establishment in the minds of contemporaries of the enduring ideals of
mercy and justice, unity and social harmony, and the preservation of the rich
historical, spiritual and cultural heritage of our country.
I wish you strength of mind and body, God's
generous help, and blessed success in your high and responsible service as
President of the Russian Federation.
04/11/2022 (Source)
Message to Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin,
Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, in National Unity Day
I heartily congratulate you on National Unity
Day.
More than four centuries have passed since our
people, having defeated foreign invaders, returned freedom and independence to
the country, defended their spiritual and cultural identity.
Turning to the origins of national history and
glorifying on this day the Most Holy Theotokos, who granted deliverance to the
Mother See of the city through Her miraculous Kazan image, now we also pray
with special zeal for our Fatherland, for its preservation from the invasion of
foreigners, for peace and unanimity of the whole people.
I hope that the successful co-operation of the
Russian Orthodox Church with state authorities and public institutions will
continue to bear many good fruits, contributing to the spiritual, moral and
patriotic education of the younger generation.
I wish you good health and God's unfailing help
in your high and responsible service for the good of Russia.
04/11/2022 (Source)
Speech on National Unity Day
More than four centuries ago, it was with the
liberation of the Moscow Kremlin that the revival of the lost internal
integrity of our Fatherland began. Back in 1612, thanks to the joint efforts of
our courageous ancestors, foreign invaders were expelled from the heart of the
country and its comprehensive revival began.
Over the centuries that have passed since then,
our people have experienced many trials, overcame many difficulties, creating a
unique civilizational space, the most important value orientations of which
were love for truth, mercy, mutual respect and good neighborliness. Note:
not a single purely utilitarian and even more so political goal! No domination,
no power, no money, but only what pleases the Lord.
Formed by the labours of many outstanding sons
and daughters of our Fatherland, Russian culture has long overstepped the
national boundaries, becoming an integral part of the common heritage of all
mankind. Unfortunately, today we are witnessing destructive attempts made by a
number of Western countries to ban or exclude Russian culture from the agenda,
the fault of which, according to its critics, lies precisely in traditionalism,
in appealing to the fundamental qualities of the human soul, in the readiness
to affirm the truth of God and to show the world the beauty and power of
Christianity.
Spiritual and cultural aggression against our
country is by no means new. Perhaps the origins of this should be sought
precisely in our spiritual otherness. How can one not recall here the subtle,
but very strong remark of the outstanding thinker Nikolai Yakovlevich
Danilevsky, who drew attention to the fact that the basis of the Western
European understanding of human culture is the identification of the fate of
European civilization with the fate of all mankind, which inevitably leads to
the forcible imposition of Western values on other nations and to destruction
of other traditions, destroys cultural diversity.
However, all this fundamentally contradicts the
civilizational foundations of our people, for which adherence to unshakable
moral principles, careful attitude to historical memory and deep respect for
the spiritual traditions of other peoples have always been of paramount
importance. And if it were not so, then there would never have been a great
multinational, multicultural and even multireligious space of Holy Rus'. Our
great culture was created by the efforts of many people belonging to different
ethnic groups, living in different territories, but thinking of themselves as
belonging to a single Russian tradition.
Today, despite the forces that seek to sow
discord, increase the fruits of hatred among the heirs of Holy Russia, we must
testify with one mouth and one heart not only about the commonality of culture,
spiritual tradition, historical destiny, but also about the unity of faith of
all East Slavic peoples who emerged from a single Dnieper font Baptism in 988.
I remember the day of the celebration of the
1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', when in Kyiv, on Khreshchatyk,
thousands of people proclaimed the words of St. Lawrence of Chernigov: "Ukraine,
Russia, Belarus - together we are Holy Rus'!" It was a choir of
many thousands of people who were united by a single faith, a single national
identity. What strength was shown then by our people! I am sincerely convinced
that today the desire to split the united people of historical Rus', to oppose
one part of it to another, to sow hatred for our common past in the minds and
hearts is fed by anti-Christian motives, the desire to etch the image of God
from a person, to enslave people to the power of sin and vice, to make them
exclusively subjects global market and consumers of wealth. The tragic
situation currently prevailing in Ukraine is a vivid confirmation of this. And
we grieve, pray and hope that the Lord will give His mercy to the people of
Ukraine, and therefore to all of historical Rus’.
It must be clearly understood that opposition
to the destructive action of hostile forces that destroy the spiritual
foundations of our life, captivate the souls of our contemporaries and seek to
separate the peoples of historical Rus' into national apartments, should be
based primarily on following the Divine will, as well as on preserving the
internal unity of society, on love for God and for each other. This is the
guarantee of a worthy future for our people, and this is the only way to
preserve unity, love, mutual understanding and good cooperation between the
peoples of Holy Rus'.
It is gratifying to testify that the Russian
Orthodox Church today is finding faithful co-workers among the state
authorities, among representatives of other traditional religions in the work
of establishing enduring spiritual and moral values in people's lives. Our
sacred duty is to make every effort to preserve the priceless treasure of our
spiritual culture and heal the wounds of divisions with love.
God grant that by our joint work the life of
our country, state, our people will continue to improve on a solid foundation
of enduring spiritual and moral values that we absorbed with mother's milk
from our ancestors, from our faith, from our spiritual tradition. It is upon
this foundation that our national life must be based. Today, this is what we
pray for and ask the Lord to preserve the unity of Holy Rus', to preserve the
Orthodox faith, to preserve in all of us the ability to live, work, create
together a future that would really be based on those Divine principles of
human existence, without which there can be no human welfare. And everything
else that contradicts these principles, - so that by the power of God it leaves
the boundaries of our historical Fatherland and ceases to excite and infect
with itself, with its pernicious and dangerous content, the souls of our
people. God grant that all of us, by the power of God, have the opportunity to
follow the historical path determined by God for all our people, keeping faith
in our hearts, and therefore hope for our salvation. Amen.
04/11/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
It is today that our Fatherland is going
through trials that are associated with the turning towards Russia of evil
views, evil thoughts, evil will. Some believe that the time has come when
Russia can be done away with. Why? But because Russia is an
alternative view of the world, of God, of man. It does not fit into the
framework of that programmed system that excludes God from people's lives, and
therefore Russia is like a thorn in the eye for many. What is happening
today is not just another military campaign. One gets the impression that
many wanted to wipe Orthodox Rus from the face of the earth. But let it
not be so! And therefore, today our special prayer is for our authorities,
for our army, for our President, for all those on whom the outcome of the
battle that we entered against our will really depends.
And after all, with us are the holy lands of Russia
and the holy, merciful, humble old man, the Monk Seraphim! Today he is
also with us, today he is also with Russia, because he is from there, from the
Kingdom of Heaven, from that point in front of which the horizons of eternity
are open, he sees and knows what is happening to our Fatherland. And
therefore, there should be a fervent prayer to him today, so that by his
intercession to the Lord he will grant victory to our army where hostilities
are going on, so that he will pacify people, so that any internecine strife on
the land of historical Russia and any invasion of foreign tribes will stop.
Through the prayers of our holy reverend and
God-bearing father Seraphim of Sarov, may the Lord preserve the Russian land,
our Church and this holy monastery. Amen.
23/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
May the Lord help all of us, all of our people,
which today is subjected to many temptations. Our country and
our people are criticized, they teach us how to live, what to do, which way to
go. It is in connection with these complaints and accusations against
Russia that we must remember that we have our own historical path. And in
order to be sure of the correctness of this path, we must correlate it, and
hence our actions, with God's truth, and then no temptations will darken our
consciousness and weaken the strength of our national life.
Today we have really entered a period of very difficult
international relations, but the truth is above all, and one cannot compromise
with a lie, even if this lie is very strong. After all, the devil is the
father of lies (see John 8:44), so to compromise with lies is to compromise
with the devil, and the devil does not wish us well. That is why it is
very important, my dear ones, first of all, to keep the faith, because through
the Orthodox faith, the highest wisdom appears to us, revealed in the Divine
commandments, in spiritual experience, in the experience of prayer, in contact
with God.
That is why now is the very time when everyone needs to be
strengthened in the faith, especially all our wavering intellectuals, who have
one foot in the Church, the other outside the Church. We need to end this
dichotomy, this division, we really need to accept the faith of our fathers and
forefathers as a great force that protected and saved our people. And
today, undoubtedly, faith will inspire us on the path of love and service to
our Fatherland and on the path of love for each other.
22/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today, remembering St. Peter, we pray at his
holy relics. Of course, for the Russian state and for the dissipation of
all the slanders of the enemy, which today are aimed at the final and
irrevocable destruction of the unity of Rus'. Because these plans help the
enemies of Rus', but Rus' itself, be it Russia or Ukraine, does not benefit
from them, although many forces are working to prove the opposite, as if the
division of Rus' is something good.
Once a politician asked me: "That's why
you are so defensive about preserving the unified space of Rus’? After
all, this is the Middle Ages! And now the political situation has changed. I
replied: "Maybe it would really be an irrevocable change, if we were not
talking about the life of a single people, regardless of how it is
called today. But it is one people, and it wants to live in a big house."
And I then asked this gentleman, "Would you rather live in a small
apartment, defending your kind of freedom and independence from others? Or in a
big apartment, in a big house? Well,
we prefer to live in a big house, but not so crowded, so that this living would
not turn into something that sometimes happens in hostels, when people become
enemies”.
And today there is such a situation in the
expanse of Rus’, when each person, living in his own house, must in so doing be
conscious of his belonging to the united spiritual space of Holy Rus’, to the heirs of the Grand Princes
Vladimir and Alexander Nevsky, the heirs of those Grand Princes, who
established Orthodoxy and fought the enemies. And today, this awareness of
belonging to one people is so important in order to avoid any military upheavals
in the space of Holy Rus’, to have the strength and wisdom to resist
temptations, temptations and provocations, aimed at bringing together one
people in another fratricidal war.
We pray and will pray for the unity of Holy Rus’ – how else could it be? How
else can we imagine ourselves, praying in the Kremlin under the vaults of the
Cathedral of the Assumption of All Rus’? The very walls themselves cry out for
this truth – that we are all one people, and this Cathedral of All Rus’
bears the seal of responsibility for the spiritual well-being of all Orthodox
Christians, present in the territory of Holy Rus’. It is the responsibility
for our Church, one and indivisible, that it preserves its unity and through
that unity manifests the will of God for all our people, wherever they may live
– in Moscow or Kiev, in Minsk or other cities. It is a single
spiritual community, united by the bonds of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Our prayers today are that this unity, as I
said, will not be shaken or destroyed. But for it to be so, each of us
must work to preserve this unity by praying first, for the Lord hears
prayers. Through prayer, the Lord delivered our land from the invasion of
foreign tribesmen and from internecine strife. And if you look closely at your life's journey –
the Lord rescued everyone from tribulations, troubles and evils by his prayers.
God hears our prayers, especially the prayers not for any personal little
well-being, but for the spiritual well-being, spiritual health of our united
historical nation of Holy Rus’.
And I want to tell you once again: all these
thoughts are actualized, when you look at the historical walls of the Cathedral
of the Assumption – the cathedral of Holy Rus’. May God incline His mercy to
all our people, cease internecine warfare, which today, unfortunately, in some
lands of historical Rus’ acquires the form of real military action. May
the Lord give wisdom to everyone who is involved in these hostilities. And everyone must understand that he
is shooting at his brother, and therefore the cessation of war, the
establishment of peace and the spiritual unity of all our people – that is what our prayer today is
about and that is what must be the subject of our common labors.
But when we say this, we are very far from what
in Western parlance is called pacifism. Pacifism is the struggle for
peace under any circumstances and very often under any conditions. But we always say – and this is
ingrained in our spiritual tradition – there can be no peace without justice. Peace
without justice breaks down whenever there is any complication or change in
people's attitudes. So peace must be lasting. And for it to be such, it is
necessary that by the power of God all devilish thoughts should be eradicated
from the consciousness of people who do not aspire to the spiritual unity of
Holy Russia, so that we all become aware of our responsibility for the
preservation of the spiritual unity of the Russian world.
And may the Lord help all of
us to fulfill our ministry in this manner, each in his own place. I have the
courage to use the word "Russian World" within these walls, even
though I know that some forces in Ukraine demonize it. But we do not use
the word "Russian" in the sense that it means only a part of
historical Russia that corresponds to the Russian Federation. We use the word
in the same sense as Nestor the Chronicler used it when he spoke of "where
the Russian land came from. Not Russian, not Ukrainian, not Byelorussian – where did the Russian
land come from! This is the sense in which we use this word – with full
responsibility, inner calmness, and confidence in the rightness of our
position.
Once again I call upon all of you, my dear
ones, to pray today for the entire Russian land, for the peoples who inhabit
this land, for the overcoming of differences, and especially for the ending of
internecine strife, which always entails death and human suffering. That the
Lord reunite us all in the one body of one Holy Rus’. That with all
understanding of the political picture of the world, with all respect for such
political concepts of modern times as the sovereignty of individual nations,
our awareness that we are one people – the people of Holy Russia – is not
destroyed in any way.
Through the prayers of St. Peter, the Kiev
Saints, from St. Michael to the holy confessor Vladimir, who laid down his life
at the walls of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra during the civil war, through the
prayers of all, who worked in the name of Holy Orthodoxy in the expanses of
Russia, may God stop the internecine strife and may He restore peace and
love among the children of the one historical Fatherland, called Orthodox Rus'.
Upon this our prayers today and upon this we direct our labors. Amen.
18/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt
from a sermon
Today,
too, there are rather difficult circumstances related to what is happening on
the external borders of our Fatherland. Forces are rising again that
dream of destroying and subjugating Russia. Today, all this is put into other
verbal forms, but behind all this is the inescapable dream of those who attacked
Russia from the West: to destroy our sovereignty, deprive us of our freedom,
and then use all the resources of the richest country in the world for their
own purposes. And today, with a very special feeling, a prayer is raised to the
Most Holy Theotokos, and with a special feeling the events associated with the
glorification of the Queen of Heaven, sitting on the throne, are remembered. We
believe that the Protection of the Most Pure Blessed Queen of Heaven is over
us, over our country, over our people, and it will be so as long as we keep the
faith.
14/10/2022 (Source)
Congratulation of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
to the President of Russia V.V. To Putin on his 70th birthday
Your Excellency, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on
your significant life date - your 70th birthday.
Over many years of tireless work in key
government positions, you have gained a reputation as a national leader,
selflessly devoted to the Fatherland, sincerely loving the Motherland and
giving her all your strength, abilities and talents. The Lord placed you at the
helm of power, so that you could perform a service of special importance and
great responsibility for the fate of the country and the people entrusted to
your care. Transformation of the image of Russia, strengthening of its
sovereignty and defense capability, protection of national interests,
progressive socio-economic development, concern for the well-being of fellow
citizens - these are just some of the obvious and indisputable results of many
years of joint work of various branches of government and public institutions,
carried out under your leadership.
I am very pleased to testify to the changes
that have taken place in the past time in the sphere of church-state relations,
marked by the creation of a unique model of cooperation, building a trusting
and mutually beneficial dialogue. I would like to express my special
gratitude to you for your continued attention to the service of the Russian
Orthodox Church, the needs and aspirations of believers, as well as for the
active support that you provide to the most important church and public
initiatives.
I hope that the existing fruitful cooperation
will continue to contribute to the consolidation of the people, the
preservation of the rich historical, spiritual and cultural heritage of Russia,
the creation of a peaceful and prosperous life for fellow citizens on the
unshakable principles of solidarity and mutual assistance, goodness and
justice.
On this significant day for you and our country,
I wish you unrelenting strength, God's abundant help and blessed success in
your further service in the high and responsible post of the state leader of
great Russia.
May the all-merciful Lord keep you in a
spiritual and physical strength for many years.
With deep and sincere respect
07/10/2022 (Source)
Circular letter sent to all clergy of the
Russian Orthodox Church
October 7 this year Russian President Vladimir
Vladimirovich Putin turns 70 years old.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All
Russia calls on all archpastors, pastors, monastics and laity to offer fervent
prayer at home on this day for the health of the Head of the Russian State.
October 8 - on the day of the feast of our
venerable father Sergius, hegumen of Radonezh, who many centuries ago blessed
the prince of Moscow - the holy blessed Demetrius of Donskoy - and the
Russian army to fight the enemy, who wanted the dismemberment of the Russian
Land and encouraged civil strife among its people, His Holiness the
Patriarch blesses to raise to the Special Litany of the Divine Liturgy, a
special petition for the health of the President of Russia, adding them to
the already established petitions for Holy Russia, and also to proclaim many
years after the dismissal of the Liturgy, according to the following wording:
- on a special litany, after petitions for Holy
Russia: We pray Thee, O Lord our God, yet for the Head of the State of Russia,
Vladimir Vladimirovich, and for the gift of Thy abundant mercies and bounties, granting
him health and long life, and delivering him from all resistance both visible
and invisible, establishing him in wisdom and spiritual fortitude, whereby
we pray, Lord hear us and have mercy;
- many years: A prosperous and peaceful
life, health and salvation and good haste in everything, give the Lord to the
now honored Head of the Russian State Vladimir Vladimirovich, the power, army
and people of our God-protected Fatherland and save them for many and good
years!
06/10/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Once again, I would like to say that today is a
time when we must especially ask ourselves this life-changing question:
"What am I doing?" Because what is happening today in the expanses
of Holy Russia certainly darkens the hearts of many. I will not speak about
myself, but with these thoughts, with this suffering, I lie down, get up and
spend the whole day, because I am the Patriarch not only of Moscow, but of all
Russia. But at the same time I believe that by the grace of God this
misfortune will pass, that it will not undermine the deep foundations of our
coexistence, which keep the people of Holy Russia, living in Russia and in
Ukraine, united. I believe that the Lord will bow down in mercy and the
internecine strife will cease. And where today is perplexity, suffering
and sorrow, our human love to each other should appear. And in response to this
love, God's love for our united people, for those who live in Russia and
Ukraine, for those who live in different parts of the world.
(…)
My parents survived the Leningrad siege, and
they told me about how God's churches in Leningrad were filled, how hungry
people, almost dying, flocked to the churches, despite the shelling, despite
the weakening of all physical strength. The churches of Leningrad were
overcrowded during the blockade, and perhaps this prayer saved the city. I
don’t want to compare the current times with what Leningraders experienced
during the hardest years of the blockade, but in a sense, a fateful time has
come today! Because many are rebelling against Russia, and many are dizzy in
the desire to destroy Russia, its identity, its independence, its freedom. And
today we must especially strengthen ourselves in the faith, fill our churches,
pray for the authorities, for the army, for our relatives, loved ones, pray for
the Orthodox Church, which in these difficult circumstances maintains the
spiritual unity of Holy Russia.
And may the Lord help us! Once again I want to
say that we have lived with you to a fateful time, and in a fateful time we
should renew our faith, sharpen our consciousness and our memory, look
differently at much of what we looked at yesterday without much attention and
special care. Then our spiritual mobilization, to which I now call everyone,
will also help the mobilization of all the forces of our Fatherland. And it
will undoubtedly help in the end the complete reconciliation of Russia and
Ukraine, which constitute the single space of the Russian Orthodox Church.
You can imagine the state of me as the
Patriarch of All Russia, when today a brother kills a brother. Probably, someone from the bearers
of extreme political views will say: here, pacifism is preaching at a time when
... Not pacifism, but with these words I simply testify to our common duty
before God - to pray for an end to internecine strife, to do everything in
order to fraternal relations between the two parts of united Russia have been
restored, and we also pray that the Lord will deliver, especially our youth,
from the fact that their lives are cut short in this internecine strife. And
in order for it to be so, it is necessary, it is necessary that the fighting
cease.
And may the Lord help us, the saints of united
Russia, the reverends of the Kiev Caves and the reverend fathers of numerous
monasteries, including the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in the expanses of great
Russia! Let us trust in their prayers, because their souls are grieving and
suffering today over what is happening. And let us hope that by common
efforts, without going down the path of dangerous compromises that could harm
united Russia, we all simultaneously moved along the path of reconciliation
and the restoration of that spiritual unity that was formed in the depths of
the united Russian Orthodox Church.
May God's blessing abide over all Holy Russia,
over those in authority, over spiritual leaders, over warriors and over all
those on whom the peaceful and prosperous outcome of this very dangerous clash
between two fraternal peoples can depend. May the Lord keep us all and
strengthen us in faith, love, unanimity. Amen.
27/09/2022 (Source)
Prayer for Holy Russia
Lord God of strength, God of our salvation,
look in mercy on Your humble servant, hear and have mercy on us: behold,
those who want to fight against Holy Russia, hoping to divide and destroy her
one people.
Arise, O God, to help Thy people and give us victory
by Thy power.
Hurry to your faithful children, jealous of the
unity of the Russian Church, strengthen them in the spirit of brotherly love
and deliver them from troubles. Forbid those who tear apart in the
darkening of minds and hardening of hearts Thy robe, which is the Church of the
Living God, and overthrow their plans.
By the grace of Thy power, guide for every good
and enrich with wisdom!
Confirm the warriors and all the defenders of
our Fatherland in Your commandments, send down the strength of the spirit to
them, save them from death, wounds and captivity!
Deprived of shelter and in exile of beings,
bring them into houses, nourish the hungry, strengthen and heal those who are
ill and suffering, give good hope and comfort to those who are in confusion and
sorrow!
Grant forgiveness of sins to all those killed
in these days and who died from wounds and illnesses and create blessed repose!
Fill us even in Thee with faith, hope and love,
raise peace and unanimity in all the countries of Holy Russia, renew love for each other in Your
people, as if with one mouth and one heart we confess to You, the One God in
the Trinity glorious. Thou art intercession, and victory, and salvation to
those who trust in Thee and we send glory to You, the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen.
25/09/2022 (Source)
Full
sermon
“For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son” (John 3:16). To death! Only Begotten Son,
Divine Son! And why was this terrible divine Sacrifice required, the scale
and significance of which cannot be grasped by the human mind? Almighty
God gives Himself up for execution, which was used to execute criminals,
outcasts of human society, who really committed terrible, dangerous crimes.
When one thinks about this ineffable divine
Sacrifice, it is difficult for the human mind to grasp the entire divine
plan. But it is quite obvious that the Lord gives Himself, suffers and
dies in a human way, not for something that would be completely
incomprehensible to us and inherent only to Him, who has immense knowledge
about Himself. He gives us the opportunity to understand that if God in
His Son gives His human life for the sake of other people, for the sake of the
human race, then sacrifice is the highest manifestation of a person's love
for his neighbors. Sacrifice is the greatest manifestation of the best human
qualities.
We know that today many are dying on the
fields of internecine warfare. The Church prays that this warfare will end
as soon as possible, that as few brothers as possible kill each other in this
fratricidal war. And at the same time, the Church is aware that if
someone, driven by a sense of duty, the need to fulfill an oath, remains true
to his calling and dies in the line of military duty, then he undoubtedly
commits an act that is tantamount to a sacrifice. He sacrifices himself
for others. And therefore we believe that this sacrifice washes away all
the sins that a person has committed.
The war that is now going on in the vastness of
Russia is an internecine strife. And that is why it is so important that
as a result of this battle there should not be a wave of bitterness and
alienation; so that the fraternal peoples are not divided by an
impenetrable wall of hatred. And the way we all behave towards each other,
what we will ask the Lord in our prayers, what we will hope for, will to a
large extent define not only the results of the battles, but also what will
happen as a result of all this. God grant that the current hostilities do not
destroy the single spiritual space of Holy Russia and, moreover, do not harden
our peoples. May all wounds be healed by the grace of God. So that,
by the grace of God, everything that today brings grief to many and many will
be blotted out of memory. So that what will replace the current situation,
And this can only happen if we live with faith
in our hearts. Because faith destroys fear, faith grants the possibility
of mutual forgiveness, faith strengthens relationships between people and can
really transform and is transforming these relationships into brotherly,
cordial and kind. God grant that it be so that everything that now darkens
the souls of many ends. God grant that during this internecine strife,
as few people as possible die or get injured. God grant that there be as
few widows and orphans as possible, fewer divided families, fewer broken
friendships and brotherhoods.
The Church, which carries out its pastoral
ministry among the peoples of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and many others in the
vastness of historical Russia, today especially suffers and especially prays
for the speedy cessation of internecine strife, for the triumph of justice, for
the restoration of fraternal communion and overcoming all that, having
accumulated over the years, and eventually led to a bloody conflict. We believe that all the saints who
shone in the Russian land—in this case, using the already accepted expression
“in the Russian land,” we mean Russia, the whole Russian land, Holy
Russia—today, together with us, offer up prayers to the Lord that so that peace
is established on earth, so that the reconciliation of the fraternal peoples
comes and, most importantly, justice triumphs, because without justice there
can be no lasting peace.
May the Lord keep us all and help us all to
walk our Christian career with dignity, despite the difficult life
circumstances that today are the reality of our earthly existence. With
the prayers of the saints, whose names we glorified today, may the Lord help us
all to be strengthened in peace, love, unanimity and purity.
25/09/2022
(Source)
Excerpts from a Sermon
Today our Fatherland, Rus’, historical Rus’ is
going through severe trials. We know what is happening in Ukraine. We
know what danger hangs over the Ukrainian people, which they are trying to
reformat, to make a state that is contrary to Russia, hostile to Russia. It
is very important that in our hearts there is no feeling that there is an
enemy. We must pray today that the Lord would strengthen the fraternal
feelings of the peoples of Holy Russia, so that the unity of our Church becomes
even stronger and stronger, which is really a guarantee of peace in the
expanses of Russia - which is why the collapse of our country began with
attempts to break the Church, create schisms and separation. The enemy
knew that this point should be hit. And although we have suffered losses
and a dangerous, sinful, graceless schism has arisen in Ukraine, but at the
same time the Orthodox faith is preserved there, and our brothers and sisters,
archpastors and pastors are united and, I believe, continue to pray together
with us around the throne of God to stop the internecine strife and to restore
peace in the expanses of historical Russia.
Today is connected with the memory of the great victory of
our people, their spiritual feat, with the memory of how spiritual authority
influenced the formation of courage and heroism. I mean, first of all, the
blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh given to Dmitry Donskoy. How all this
formed the true spiritual strength of our army, which won the historic battle.
This is an excursion into history from our ecclesiastical
point of view. This point
of view is not present in secular historical science, but in vain, because it
is this approach to history that highlights the most important thing – the
spiritual dimension in the life of people and the state, without which victory,
in the conditions of the fading of faith and spirit, becomes impossible. Therefore,
today we pray to the Lord again and again that He would pacify Russia, stop
internecine strife, so that Holy Rus’ would be reunited – in the sense that no
strife and division would torment the heirs of that very united Holy Russia. And
today, when we remember the victory of our people in the Battle of Kulikovo, we
ask that a true victory come without special battles and bloodshed, which would
return to us spiritual unity, peace, prosperity and mutual love.
21/09/2022 (Source)
Message to the participants of the VII Congress
of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions
I cordially greet all of you who have gathered
on the hospitable land of Kazakhstan to participate in the work of the VII
Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
The current forum is dedicated to the role of
religious leaders in the spiritual and social life of people in post-pandemic
times. There is no doubt that today humanity is going through one of the most
difficult periods of modern history. Added to the challenges posed by the
coronavirus pandemic are food, energy and economic problems caused by attempts
to build a world without moral values. Over the past two decades, these
attempts have led not only to the loss of the concept of justice in
international relations, but also to fierce confrontation, military conflicts,
the spread of terrorism and extremism in different parts of the world.
Today, as never before, it is difficult for
people to navigate the flow of information, to resist ideological suggestions,
to maintain a sober mind and peace of mind. We have witnessed the distortion
of historical facts and unprecedented manipulation of mass consciousness. This
is because there is less and less love, mercy, compassion in society.
Increasingly, we hear and read in the public space words filled with hatred
towards entire peoples, cultures and religions.
The path of dictatorship, rivalry and
confrontation chosen by some rulers of this world is leading humanity to
destruction. And under these conditions, it is faith that can sober people up,
return them to the path of dialogue and cooperation, because in traditional religions the fundamental
moral principles of human existence remain unshakable.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to
express special gratitude to the authorities of Kazakhstan for the fact that,
at their invitation, authoritative religious leaders from all over the world
were once again able to gather in the capital of the Republic. The possibility
of dialogue in the current difficult circumstances is a very valuable resource,
an important step towards solving existing problems. I am sure that the
peacemaking dialogue of religious leaders, coupled with their influence on the
minds and hearts of people, can and should contribute to overcoming the
challenges of our time, harmonizing international relations, and establishing a
just world order.
I wish the participants of the Congress
meaningful and useful communication, mutual understanding and agreement, in
which God help you all.
14/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of a sermon
Today is such a time – a time of anxiety, even
very disturbing. And we must pray that all dangers will pass our
Motherland, that those who dream of crushing Russia as an independent, truly
independent state will be left with nothing. Such states can be listed on
the fingers of one hand, all others in one way or another depend on the world centres
of power; but Russia does not depend on any centres of power that are outside
its sovereign territory. This is a great privilege, but it is also a huge
cross, because there are always those who would like to bring such a rich,
strong country as Russia into the orbit of their influence.
We know that the world is restless, while
Russia continues its truly sovereign historical existence, and if we look at
our history, we will understand that this sovereignty was largely determined by
the strength of the spirit of the Russian people, the strength of the spiritual
influence of the Church on our Fatherland. We know what an enormous role
the Church played in the liberation of Russia from foreign forces. We know that
it was the Church that inspired the soldiers for the historical battles, as a
result of which the Motherland remained sovereign and free. We know how the
saints prayed for the country, for the army, for the Grand Duke, and then for
the Tsar.
Today, the time has come when we should
especially pray for our Fatherland, for our President - what difference does it
make what the head of state is called! for our army. So that the country has the
strength to maintain its true independence from the most powerful forces that
today dominate most of the countries of the world.
Russia has a special historical path. When
everything is safe, calm, we somehow think a little about it; but when troubled
times come, you begin to become especially aware of the world-wide fateful
mission of Russia. So it was in antiquity, and so today this special mission
is returning and placed on the shoulders of our people.
Today we prayed to the holy noble Grand Duke
Daniel and his father, the holy noble Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, who, by
virtue of their position, combined both the head of the state and the head of
the army. But how difficult it was! After all, where there is an army,
there is a sword, and where there is a sword, there is death. And what
spiritual strength one had to have, how one had to be aware of one's moral and
spiritual responsibility to remain a holy man while leading a country and an
army and having a sword at one's hip! The Grand Dukes Alexander Nevsky and
Daniil of Moscow, whom we remember today, managed to combine this political and
military mission with holiness. But, probably, such a combination is a
guarantee that a country with such leadership will never commit war crimes. Because if at the head of the
Fatherland, at the head of the army is a saint, and maybe not a saint, but a
believer, Orthodox, baptized, aware of his responsibility before God, Church
and country, the country is guaranteed against all kinds of military
adventures, the country can be sure that the sword at his hip will be drawn
only when it is morally, morally and even spiritually justified.
And today, I want to say again, we live in a
very difficult time, and therefore our special prayer is for the head of our
state, for Supreme Commander Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who has a special
responsibility, as well as for all military leaders and those who are in
authorities. So that the Lord would make wiser, strengthen,
enlighten, protect from sins and mistakes and at the same time inspire actions
that would bring protection to our Fatherland from all external, even perhaps
the most dangerous and terrible threats.
12/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
Today, as in the days of St. Peter, the Russian
Church is threatened by many dangers. Then it was the nomads who attacked the
Russian land, robbed it, killed people, destroyed the economic opportunities of
the country, but even today, as we know, not everything is calm in the
world. And in a sense, a very special service, undoubtedly by the will of God,
is now being given to this city and our country. Because the strength of modern
Russia is capable of resisting many forces, including those fighting with God
and with Christ. Those forces that are directed and direct their sting at
hurting a person in such a way that he loses the ability to distinguish between
good and evil. The concept of sin disappeared from the political lexicon,
because instead of distinguishing between good and evil, a new model of behaviour
arose, focused solely on the choice of the person himself, when he himself
determines what is good for him and what is evil. But when a significant
part of the so-called civilized world takes up these ideas, our country, as it
was in times past, retains its ability to resist this terrible temptation. And
we must observe the ability and readiness to distinguish good from evil, guided
not by momentary political interests, not by human ambitions, but exclusively
by the moral law that God has put into our souls, into the very nature of man.
And God grant that the Mother See of Moscow retains the opportunity to
remain an island of freedom in this stormy world, so that it is here that a
healthy spiritual resistance is formed to any attempts to mix good and evil and
completely abandon the fact that sin is called sin, and virtue is virtue. God
grant that with the prayers of St. Peter, laid the foundation of church life in
our Mother See City of Moscow, the Orthodox faith was strengthened in our
people, love for the Fatherland was strengthened, the ability to resist the
temptations and intrigues of tempters was strengthened, so that our faith would
remain alive, the independence and freedom of our Fatherland would be
preserved. And if so, then there is hope for salvation.
Through the prayers of St. Peter, Metropolitan
of Kyiv, Moscow and All Russia, may the Lord preserve the Russian land, may
He strengthen the brothers who now live in different states - Russia, Ukraine
and Belarus - in unanimity and awareness of special responsibility for our
common destiny, and in which in a sense for the fate of the world. And we
believe as long as the blessing of St. Peter remains over Russia, over our
people, over our Church, and through his prayers we will retain a great ability
to distinguish right from left, good from evil, sin from holiness. Through
the prayers of St. Peter of Kyiv, Moscow and All Russia, may the Lord protect
the Russian land, may the Lord help overcome disagreements, most often provoked
from outside, which today threaten the unity of our entire people. May the Lord
preserve, through the prayers of St. Peter, our people in unanimity and
Orthodox faith. Amen.
06/09/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon on the feast of the
Donskoy Mother of God
Today such times have come when we should
especially ask the Lord for help to our Fatherland. Indeed, there is a struggle
between good and cosmic evil. Why do we say so? Because the justification of sin is the work of the
devil. The devil needs to destroy the mediastinum between good and evil, to
confuse concepts, and this is exactly what is happening today! People do not
distinguish what is good and what is evil, because powerful propaganda forces
are working all over the world, forming such a worldview. This is what the dark
force stakes on: if people cease to distinguish between good and evil, then
they will belong to evil, without any compromise.
What prevents the final victory of evil? He is
opposed by the Lord Jesus Christ, His Divine power, manifested in the faith of
His followers, His disciples. And as long as there is an unshakable faith among
His disciples and followers that the Lord is the master of history, that the
fate of the universe is in His hands, that faith in God is an indispensable
condition for the survival of human civilization, then the human race will also
be preserved.
In this sense, our country has a special
mission today. We are one of the few who call evil evil and good good, who do not allow powerful
propaganda forces to mix these concepts so that a person does not distinguish
between good and evil. In fact, a terrible idea is being imposed on us that
there is no good and evil, but there are models of human behaviour, and
everyone has the right to choose the model that suits him. And if this model
contradicts God's will, God's moral law, the one that Israel found on Mount
Sinai, the one that was brought to the world by Christ the Saviour, then what
should we do? Well-bred, intelligent people do not answer such a question, but
less well-mannered and intelligent people directly say what they think of us. Therefore,
what is happening today is really part of a very important struggle, cosmic
struggle between good and evil. And God grant that through the prayers of
the saints who have shone forth in our land, our people, in spite of any
temptations, temptations, influences, retain the Orthodox faith, faith in the
Lord and Saviour, in the Protection of His Most Pure Mother, and therefore the
ability to distinguish good from evil, the ability to be truly free people. For
you are called to freedom, brethren, says the apostle (Gal. 5:13).
Bearing in mind all this, let us keep the
Orthodox faith as the greatest shrine and treasure. And to those who have not
fully believed yet, I make an appeal: the times have come when you can’t
pretend that nothing is happening, when you need to make an ideological choice,
on which depends not only the personal life of the one who makes this choice,
but the very existence of our Fatherland.
Praying before the miraculous image of the Don
Mother of God, remembering the great heroic events of our national history,
connected with the struggle of our people for freedom and independence, we will
be worthy of our great ancestors. In the present conditions, let us just as
strongly hope for the Intercession of the Most Pure Mother of God, we will also
lift up our fervent prayer to Her image, we will also love our Fatherland and
also be ready to defend it, if necessary. And we believe that the Lord will
be with us, because the truth is on our side. Someone may be surprised
and say: why so? The answer is simple: because we are trying to live according
to the truth of God, according to God's law, according to the commandments; and
if, humanly, out of weakness, we violate them, then we do not renounce these
commandments as the basic law of human life. And as long as it is so, our
Fatherland will be preserved.
01/09/2022 (Source)
Message
of condolences on the death of Daria Alexandrovna Dugina
Dear
Alexander Gelevich!
It is
with deep sorrow that I received the news of the tragic death of your daughter.
Darya
Alexandrovna was known in Russia and abroad as an active public figure, a
bright journalist, and a talented scientific researcher. Being the successor of your
work, she, despite her young age, managed to achieve significant success in her
chosen field, earn the gratitude and respect of her colleagues.
In the
days of severe trials associated with the loss of family and loved ones, for
us, the words of the Holy Scripture sound like a consolation: “if we live, we
live for the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord; therefore, whether we live or
die, it is always the Lord's" (Rom. 14:8).
May the
merciful Lord of Heaven and Earth rest the soul of His newly-departed servant
Daria in the abodes of the righteous and create eternal memory for her.
21/08/2022 (Source)
Message
to the organizers and participants of the 1st International Anti-Fascist
Congress
I
cordially greet all the participants of the Congress, which is taking place
within the framework of the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum.
The
fight against fascism has become, unfortunately, one of the most acute and
topical topics in recent times. The Russian people, who paid a huge price for the victory over the evil
of Nazism, have a particularly reverent attitude towards this topic. After the
end of World War II, it seemed to many that the "brown plague" was
finally and irrevocably destroyed, because it is impossible to forget the
horrors and incalculable suffering that the ideology of hatred, national and
racial superiority brought to humanity.
However,
for several decades now, we have been watching with concern how, with the
support of certain malevolent forces, obvious and indisputable facts are being
revised, how a world of fakes and lies is being created before our eyes, the
purpose of which is not only to distort the history of the events of the 20th century,
devaluing the contribution of our country in the eradication of fascism, but
also to sow the seeds of distrust and enmity between people, to pit entire
fraternal peoples against each other. All this, of course, is the work
of the devil, who, as Christ testifies in the Gospel, was a murderer from
the beginning and did not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him – he
is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).
For the
people of Russia, the memory of the Great Patriotic War and the sacrificial
feat of their ancestors is truly sacred: it has become an integral part of the
national cultural code and our identity. We know from our own bitter experience
how dangerous experiments are to forget the past. That is why the Russian
people do not get tired of testifying to the whole world about what an
insidious evil humanity faced in the last century and what catastrophic
consequences the neglect of danger and frivolous flirting with fascism can lead
to.
Of
course, the disease of nationalism can strike any nation, especially if its
spiritual immunity is weakened by proud self-exaltation, the rejection of
historical memory and the ideals of good neighborliness, peacefulness and
mutual respect. But how important it is to prevent the growth of this cancerous
tumor, which will inevitably bring death to the entire healthy body! How
important it is not to allow feelings of hatred, pride and cruelty to settle in
our hearts!
Today,
the universal responsiveness and all-humanity of the Russian spirit, about which
F.M. Dostoevsky wrote, are revealed in new circumstances. Defending the
historical truth and protecting the suffering brothers in blood and spirit, our
people are fulfilling a difficult and very responsible mission: they return to
the world the values that they, in their madness, are trying to refuse. These unshakable values are
fidelity to God and traditional moral principles, adherence to the ideals of
brotherhood and love, mercy and spiritual nobility.
In order
to carry out this fateful mission, the rallying of society is especially
necessary, strong faith is needed, combined with hope in the wise Providence of
the Almighty. God grant that we all have the strength, wisdom and patience to
adequately cope with the difficult test of time and bring closer the
establishment of a lasting and just peace for all peoples.
Calling
on you the blessing of Christ, I wish the participants of the Congress good
health and help from the Lord in good deeds.
20/08/2022
(Source)
Sermon on the anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus’
Today we live in a time when among the peoples
of historical Russia the enemy of the human race has sown and nurtured the
seeds of discord. This has happened before in our history, for the unity and
peace commanded by God are always a target for evil forces. But a Christian
should not be afraid of the menacing phenomena of the times, remembering that
the Church of Christ has constantly faced and will face the hostility of theomachic
forces trying to extinguish the light of truth.
We firmly hope that the faith of Christ will
help us heal the wounds of divisions inflicted on the unity of peoples who have
come out of the common font of Baptism. And today, remembering the feat of Equal-to-the-Apostles
Prince Vladimir, who baptized and united her, may each of us turn fervent
prayers to this saint for overcoming mediastinations and enmity, for the reign
of a lasting and just peace in the expanses of historical Russia. Amen.
28/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
Maybe that's why they rise up against us
because we are different? Faith disappears everywhere - I mean the Christian
world - or is deformed so that nothing remains of it. Because in the appendix to the
Gospel, people arbitrarily include such an interpretation of texts, such an
ethically incorrect interpretation, which today really leads to the decline of
moral, spiritual life in countries that were considered Christian. For us, this
is not a reason to say: "We are different, we are better" - this
would be completely wrong, this would be a sinful conclusion from the analysis
of the situation. But for us, this is a reason to say: "We are different,
and God grant that we have the strength to remain different." Not from the
point of view of some kind of political confrontation, especially in the
military sense, – we are talking exclusively about the moral, spiritual and
religious dimension of our life.
21/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon
Today we are living through different times. Today Russia is a powerful
state, and hardly anyone will try to deprive us of our freedom and independence
by force of arms. But in our evil age, there are many other ways to crush
people, deprive them of their national identity, deprive them of their faith,
deprive them of a sense of patriotism. We know that today many forces are
working to influence our people and our country in this way. Why? Because we
continue to be different. In "enlightened" Europe, faith in God
is banished, educated people are ashamed to admit that they are believers, and
this is a fact. And in our country, which has gone through years of godlessness
and persecution, the faith of Christ is strengthened in people. God grant that
it be so. So that our authorities, and the army, and our intelligentsia, and
all our people keep faith in the Lord, the Orthodox faith,
Today we have gathered here precisely in order to pray again and again
for our Fatherland, which is passing through a difficult time in its history.
May the Lord help Russia and all historical Russia to preserve faith, preserve piety, preserve the ability to keep in your
mind, in your memory the great spiritual feats of those representatives of our
people who became famous as saints. And among them, one of the foremost is the
humble Elder of Radonezh, the Monk Sergius, who became the soul of our people,
a great saint of God, undoubtedly for all of us and today praying for Holy
Russia and the Orthodox faith.
18/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from a sermon
And if
we are all with God, if we live according to God's law, if we find the strength
in ourselves to fight our passions, vices, sinful thoughts and not very good
deeds, then the Lord will really be with us. And today we really need God to
be with us, and here, on the western border of Russia, this is especially felt.
Many are rising up today against our Fatherland, but we know that the
Fatherland has done nothing wrong to anyone. And they rebel not because we are
bad, but because we are different. This otherness of Russia arouses feelings of
jealousy, envy and indignation, but we cannot change ourselves. Of course, many
wanted, as they say now, to reforming us, but it did not work out, although
such huge efforts and funds were invested in the reformation of Russia. And
she, as she was, is, in essence, Holy Russia, inheritance of the Most Holy
Theotokos. God grant that it be so in the future, and it is especially
important for me to tell you about all this, my dear ones, who live on the
western border of Holy Russia.
May
the Lord protect the Kaliningrad land, our people and the whole Russian land
from every enemy and adversary. But the most important thing is that the Lord keep our hearts pure and
the faith in our hearts. If so, then we are not afraid of any enemies, and
first of all, our internal enemy is not afraid, which inclines us to sin, vice
and deviation from God's law. May the Lord protect Russia, the land of
Kaliningrad, the Church that lives here, and all of you, my dear
Kaliningraders.
03/07/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from Sermon
Once again I want to say that my words may seem incomprehensible to someone, strange, but these are not my words! I am telling you the words of God, this is God's law, and as a Patriarch I am obliged to speak about this law in order for the life of the individual to be integral, for our families to be strong, and hence for all our people to be strong. And how we need today this consolidation, the concentration of our entire nation in the face of enormous external dangers! We must be strong, but a strong man cannot be weak in his personal life. Everything is connected, one with the other, from childhood to the grave. That is probably why the Lord, having bowed His mercy to us, gave us the opportunity to build temples today. Nowhere, neither in Europe nor in America, new churches are being built, people no longer need them. They are closing, repurposing, and sometimes, instead of temples, dance floors and other entertainment facilities appear. And we, to the horror of the very world that cannot understand us, are building God's temples. We are the Russia of the 21st century. Isn't this a miracle of God? We, who have gone through all these persecutions, through all this godless ideology, we as a people have risen and are b
May the Lord protect the Kaliningrad land, our people and the whole Russian land from every enemy and adversary. But the most important thing is that the Lord keep our hearts pure and the faith in our hearts. If so, then we are not afraid of any enemies, and first of all, our internal enemy is not afraid, which inclines us to sin, vice and deviation from God's law. May the Lord protect Russia, the land of Kaliningrad, the Church that lives here, and all of you, my dear Kaliningraders.uilding churches, and a feeling of love for the Fatherland is growing in us. And we see how our young guys are now defending Russia on the battlefield. Our priests, who take care of our warriors, tell me about amazing examples of courage, self-sacrifice, the ability to lay down their lives for their friend. Where is it from? Not from a high salary, not from the encouragement of the authorities, not from the desire to advance in the service, but from an inner moral feeling, brought up by the Orthodox faith.
19/06/2022 (Source)
Happy Russia Day message to Putin
Your Excellency, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on Russia Day.
This holiday unites our fellow citizens, for whom the value priorities
are love for the Fatherland and Russian traditions, the desire to work for
the good of the native country and the readiness to remain faithful to it in various trials.
It is gratifying that today an important area of state policy is the preservation of the
people, which includes, among other things, the maintenance of social
stability, the preservation of a rich cultural heritage and the protection of Russia's sovereignty.
I am grateful to you for your unwavering attention to the mission of the
Moscow Patriarchate. I am convinced that the cooperation of the Church, government agencies,
public institutions and all people of good will can contribute to
strengthening the unity of our country and the spiritual health of our
contemporaries.
I wish you full strength of mind and body, peace, well-being and God's
inexhaustible help in serving in the responsible post of President of Russia.
With deep and sincere respect
12/06/2022 (Source)
Journal of the Holy Synod of June 7, 2022
(…) about the development of the situation after the Council of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church held in Kiev.
RESOLVED:
1. To note with regret the continuing pressure on the bishops, clergy,
monastics and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from
representatives of the Ukrainian state authorities and the extremist
part of Ukrainian society.
2. To express support to all the bishops, clergy, monastics and laity of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who, realizing the need to observe the
canonical system, strive to adhere to the order determined by the Diploma
of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia dated October
27, 1990 and the canonical norm of commemoration at the services of the
Patriarch Moscow and all Russia (see Dvukr. 15).
3. Recall that the decision to change the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church can only be made within the framework of the canonical procedure,
including the decision of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox
Church. Emphasize that unauthorized actions to change the status of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church may lead to the emergence of a new schism
within it. The Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church also drew attention to
this, pointing out in its statement of May 12, 2022 that any discussions
regarding the life of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should take place
within the canonical field and should not lead to new divisions in the
Church.
4. To call on all bishops, clergy, monastics and laity to pray for the
preservation of church unity.
07/06/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the sermon of the Sixth Sunday after Easter
Today we remember the terrible events in the history of our Fatherland.
Firstly, the decision to divide Russia, which was taken by the then leader
Lenin. Prior to that, enemies tried to divide united Russia, and the
princes of Kyiv, then the princes of Moscow, tsars, emperors defended
the unity of the country. But then such a gentleman or comrade came and
liquidated a single country, creating independent states on the
territory of historical Russia. Since everything that the
revolutionaries did was connected with the deception of the people, then
what this person did also carried deception. On the one hand, he signed all these decrees that independent
states were created on the territory of Russia, but very soon little was
left of his decision. But there was a solution! The supreme ruler has decided to destroy his country, and we know that
the consequences of that terrible decision still affect the fate of all
of us - people living in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, and
other places. Of course, many have got used to it, many even consider
that all this is good; how many heads - so many minds. But the great
country, the stronghold of Orthodoxy, the force that balanced all other
forces, weakened through these terrible historical decisions. However, not so much that it is no longer considered at all, and
therefore today we are face to face with new problems, which are again
connected with the fact that dangerous attempts are being made to weaken our Fatherland. And we believe that the Lord will not allow this through the
prayers of the holy saints, through the prayers of all the saints,
starting from the fathers of the Kiev Caves, the fathers who labored in
all Russian monasteries, and especially the new martyrs and confessors of
the Russian Church.
(…)
Today, of course, we cannot but grieve over what is happening in fraternal Ukraine. Undoubtedly, the same spirits of wickedness in high places took up arms against our
Church, striving not only to divide the Orthodox people of Russia and
Ukraine, but to make sure that an abyss lay between us. And not just an
abyss, but that a ditch be dug, like those ditches that are used during
a military operation, so that the enemy does not pass through. I am deeply convinced that since all these efforts are not from God
and not with God's blessing, this goal will never be achieved.
Because, despite any changes in the borders between states, the Church of the
united people that emerged from the Kyiv Baptismal font, like the people
themselves, will undoubtedly keep in their hearts, in their memory, in
their pious customs the great heritage of their ancestors, coming from the prince Vladimir to this day. Today, some forces,
allegedly acting for the benefit of one of our peoples, are digging these
ditches, thinking that by doing so they will ensure happiness and
well-being.
I want to say again and again: we fully understand how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church suffers today. We
are sympathetic to the fact that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry and
the episcopate should act today as wisely as possible so as not to
complicate the life of their believing people. We treat all this with
understanding, but we also pray that no temporary external
mediastinations destroy the spiritual unity of our people. And we ask the Lord that the spiritual values that our pious people
have formed under the auspices of the one Russian Orthodox Church, and
which are rooted in the souls and hearts of people, bear their fruit of
standing for the unity of the Church and for God's truth.
29/05/2022 (Source)
Resolutions of the extraordinary meeting of the Synod, to discuss the
decisions taken by the council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow
Patriarchate)
1. Express all possible support and understanding to the arch-pastors,
pastors, monastics and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is subjected to unprecedented pressure
from representatives of schismatic structures, local authorities, the
media, extremist organizations and the nationalist-minded part of the
public.
2. To call on the fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church to fervent
prayers for strengthening the strength of our brethren in Ukraine, for
granting them courage and God's help in the daily feat of Christian
witness.
3. To state that the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is determined by the
Diploma of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia of
October 27, 1990.
4. To note that the additions and amendments to the Statute on the Administration of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church adopted by the Council of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church need to be studied in the prescribed manner for their compliance with the
aforementioned Charter and the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church,
according to which such additions and amendments must be submitted for
approval to the Patriarch Moscow and all Russia.
5. Emphasize that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, deeply
empathizing with all those affected by misfortune, has repeatedly called
for doing everything possible to avoid casualties among civilians, and for
all members of the Russian Orthodox Church to purely pray for the speedy
restoration of peace and provide all possible assistance to all those
affected, including refugees, people left without shelter and
livelihood.
6. Express regret over the fact that in a number of dioceses of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church the commemoration of the Patriarch of Moscow and
All Russia is being discontinued, which has already led to divisions
within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and which contradicts Canon 15 of the
Two-Time Council.
7. To testify that the entirety of the Russian Orthodox Church prays for
the preservation of church unity and for the speedy cessation of
bloodshed.
29/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of a message to performers in a charity concert for refugees
from Donbass
Now, in the era of aggravation of conflicts and contradictions, the
multiplication of hatred and anger, it is especially important for
believers not to forget their calling to be peacemakers, to show
kindness and love, responsiveness and mercy.
26/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on on the day of memory of Saints Methodius and Cyril
Equal-to-the-Apostles
Today we are going through a very difficult time. It is a sorrowful time when external forces are trying to break the
unity of the Russian Orthodox Church; when enormous efforts are being
made to tear our Church in Ukraine away from the fullness of the Russian
Orthodox Church. We know in what difficult conditions our brothers are
working there today, and I pray every day, and I urge you to pray that
the Lord would give them the strength to remain faithful. Loyalty to one’s hierarchal oath, loyalty to the unity of our
Church, so that everyone here, and everywhere, remembers that attempts by
secular forces to invade the inner life of the Church, to break unity, are
not being made for the first time. Throughout almost the entire history of
the Church, there have been schisms and divisions, when external enemies
found adherents and supporters within the Church,
We believe that the same will happen on Ukrainian soil, and therefore we
pray that the episcopate of the Ukrainian Church, our brothers, retain
their fortitude, courage, ability to resist external pressures,
and at the most difficult moment remember how we all resisted the most
dangerous external pressures during the times of atheism, and withstood,
kept our Church immaculate from all temptations, all kinds of slander,
all dangerous ideas, proposals, and even demands that came from the
authorities, and thus preserved faith among our people. Today, I especially pray that the forces of evil do not shake the unity of our
Church, which means the firm standing of our people in the faith of Christ, the
ability to maintain unity and solidarity in the bowels of the Orthodox
Church.
24/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of speech at the plenary session of the 20th International
Educational Readings
The teacher must constantly learn so that the subject he teaches does not
lose its attractiveness for students. What does it mean to keep learning?
The teacher knows very well the topics that he should teach, but the
teaching of religion is always tied to life, and apart from life it is a
dry and useless subject. Therefore, examples from life, reference to life
situations will help children perceive Christianity contextually, that is,
in connection with the fact that they know what is familiar to them in the
context in which they themselves exist and act. Scholastic teaching, in my
opinion, is not one that strictly follows certain patterns, but one that
is divorced from life. Teaching is one thing, life is another. So, the teaching of the Fundamentals of Orthodox culture can in no case be
divorced from our life, so you should always fill it with wonderful
examples. Of course, from the lives of saints, but also from the lives
of our wonderful contemporaries, from the lives of heroes who gave their
lives on the battlefields. After all, even today there are so many
heroes, so many who sacrifice their lives, their health, defending their
homeland. All these examples can and should also help children
understand how important the spiritual power of a person is. Because not a single heroic deed is performed rationally - this is
what you need to remember! — but always irrational. It is rational to
hide, run away, hide, but a person, driven by the power of the spirit,
gets up and goes towards death. It seems to me that this topic is very
important, including for arousing interest in spiritual life in children,
so that they understand that the Christian, Orthodox faith is really a
great power.
(…)
I have repeatedly said that there were no easy times in our
history. And now the Russian world is once again becoming an outpost of
Christian civilization. Our prayers today are for those who selflessly keep the faith in the
expanses of historical Russia, for the clergy performing the feat of
sacrificial service to their neighbours, for doctors and volunteers, for
all those who courageously defend the truth of God in difficult
conditions, testifying to goodness and justice.
Today, the unity of historical Russia is especially important. “By unity and love we will be saved” - this message was addressed to
the people by St. Sergius of Radonezh, the 600th anniversary of the
acquisition of the relics of which we also celebrate this year. This call
of the Hegumen of the Russian land resounds through the centuries even
today, especially in connection with the attempts of the forces that act
against the interests of the Russian world to break this world, to push
parts of this world against each other, including in a real physical
conflict, in a war. We know what is happening in fraternal Ukraine, and
therefore my prayers are for His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, for the
episcopate of our Church, for the clergy and, of course, for the pious
believing Ukrainian people, who today defend the values of the Orthodox
faith in the most difficult historical circumstances.
23/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt of sermon on the day of memory of St. Nicholas the
Wonderworker
Through the prayers of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, may the Lord preserve the Russian state, may the Lord preserve our land
from all sorts of enemies, may it strengthen our Church in unity, and all of us, my dear ones, in the Orthodox faith and in the ability
to overcome all fears and all despondency. Amen. Christ is Risen!
22/5/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from the speech by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the X
Parliamentary meetings in the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly
of the Russian Federation - On the 350th Anniversary of the Birth of
Peter I: Secular Peace and Religiosity.
(…)
At that time, this cultural communication was built largely taking into
account common Christian values. However, in modern times in the West appeared and then became widespread, in my
opinion, dangerous ideas based on the denial of the Christian heritage and
on the acceptance of moral relativism as a kind of principle on which
relations between people should be built. Unfortunately, over the past
centuries, these ideas have only intensified and led to the fact that the
European society began to revise the unshakable Christian values, which
led to the establishment of arrogance and pride, to the destruction of
trust between countries and peoples.
And today Russia does not close the “window to Europe” once cut through by Peter, and does not isolate itself, but this window remains open only for mutually respectful dialogue, and
not ideological dictate and bossy shouts from outside. Participation in this dialogue should not injure our self-consciousness and
deprive us of legitimate pride in our country, in our history, in our
culture.
(…)
Now a few words about Ukraine.
It is impossible to talk about the situation in Ukraine, and even more
so to give it any assessment, outside the historical context. As you
remember from national history, in the XII-XV centuries our country
existed in the form of many disparate principalities – fragments of a
once united and strong state. Under these conditions, the Church remained the main force holding the
nation from final disintegration. Our Church countered the tendencies of chaos and conflict in Ancient
Russia with the ideal of a common life based on love, brotherhood, peace and
mutual trust. This principle in the XIV century was proclaimed by St. Sergius of
Radonezh, who called on his compatriots "by looking at the Holy Trinity to
overcome the hated strife of this world." The monk made a huge personal contribution to overcoming the disunity
between the principalities, realizing
It is no secret that over the past few centuries, divisions among the
peoples of historical Russia have been artificially provoked, including
from outside. In this regard, a landmark event was the conclusion of the Church Union
of Brest in 1596, an agreement according to which part of the clergy of
the Orthodox Metropolis of Kyiv joined the Catholic Church. This act,
aimed at destroying Orthodox unity, solved a very specific political
problem for the Western powers.
During the Time of Troubles, civil confrontation brought the Orthodox
Cossacks of Zaporozhye under the banner of the Polish
interventionists. This historical precedent of the division of the peoples of Russia, alas,
was not the only one. It is worth remembering the betrayal of Hetman Ivan
Mazepa, who, during the Northern War between Russia and Sweden, went over to
the side of the Swedish King Charles XII. The majority of Russians,
Ukrainians and Belarusians have always perceived Mazepa precisely as a
traitor to Russia, and not as a personal enemy of Peter I. Unfortunately, in
recent years, Hetman Mazepa has been consciously rehabilitated in Ukraine,
many historical facts have undergone a radical reassessment, and if you call
a spade a spade, — were distorted or completely forgotten.
The revolutionary events of 1917 and the ensuing civil war in Russia were
in no small measure the result of the expansion of Western teachings about
a new structure of social and political life. This is a vivid example of the fact that even the most seemingly attractive
ideas that come from outside cannot be treated uncritically. "Equality,
brotherhood, freedom" turned people's heads. And Berdyaev wrote wonderfully,
simply destroying this very idea of "equality, fraternity and freedom."
According to him, where there is freedom, there can be no equality. Equality
is on the lawn, which is mowed, but there is no freedom. And the meadow at
the edge of the forest is the realm of freedom, but there is no equality
there. These wonderful words led to a very important rethinking of the
revolutionary events - first of all, among our emigration, and then in our
country.
During the Great Patriotic War, the peoples of our country united in the
face of a common threat. The mitigation of persecution against the Church made it possible to rely
on the faith stored in the hearts and survive. For modern Russia, the memory
of wars, and especially of the last major conflict on a global scale - the
Great Patriotic War - is truly priceless and helps to realize the undeniable
significance of unity.
The tragedy of the Great Patriotic War, which claimed the lives of 27
million of our brothers and sisters, of whom 18 million were civilians,
must never be forgotten by the peoples of historical Russia. That is why any attempts to justify not only the inhuman Nazi ideology itself,
but also all its supporters and accomplices look so unacceptable. Such
attempts can only cause deep moral rejection and justified
indignation. Attempts to rehabilitate, in particular in Ukraine, those who were
associated with the German Nazis, to perpetuate their memory – all this
is a sign of contempt for the victims of the Great Patriotic War,
including the victims suffered by the Ukrainian people.
The collapse of the USSR and the emergence of national states inevitably
raised the question of the relationship of fraternal peoples in the new
historical realities. Deep folk ties that have developed at the level of
kinship relations, joint activities, centuries-old history, and most
importantly – a common faith, culture and language – have led to the
preservation of church unity, stretching over new state
borders. The Church respects the borders and sovereignty of states, but for her
political divisions are of secondary importance, the main thing is
spiritual unity, good neighborliness and mutual understanding between people.
Now a few words about the divisions that began in 2014. The fratricidal division that began in Ukraine in 2014 is experienced by
the Church as a tragedy. I would like to remind you that from the very
beginning of the conflict, the Church in Ukraine and Russia has been
unceasingly offering prayers for peace and invariably calling people to
overcome divisions. Throughout the eight years of armed confrontation, the Church organized
many charity events in support of those who found themselves in trouble,
lost their homes and were forced to flee from military clashes. As you know, with the mediation of the Church, the exchange of
prisoners of war took place more than once.
I remember how difficult it was to organize the first such
exchange. There were fears on both sides, but by the grace of God, it was the
participation of the Church in this exchange, the initiative that came from
the Church, that helped to remove those fears, suspicions, tensions that
accompanied this action, unprecedented for that time.
I am convinced that the division of the peoples of historical Russia,
which has come down to a bloody conflict, as before in history, is the
result of the intervention of external hostile political
forces. It is well known that the colonial powers, guided by the principle of
"divide and conquer", also created points of military tension and
internecine conflicts in other regions of the globe. Today, this shameful
rule, unfortunately, is also used to escalate Russian-Ukrainian
hostility.
Yes, quarrels also happen between siblings, but it turned out to be
possible to bring it to fratricide through targeted propaganda of
aggression and lies. I said earlier that the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, who emerged from
the common Kyiv Baptismal font, are united by the Orthodox faith and bound
by a common historical destiny, cannot be considered the culprits of this
situation. They do not and cannot have an interest in the conflict.
Our flock is both in Russia and Ukraine, and we fervently pray for the
restoration of peace, for the Lord to overthrow the plans of an evil
external force that feeds hatred. One cannot but say that the schism of Ukrainian Orthodoxy is yet another
link in this vicious chain of divisions. The actions of the Patriarchate
of Constantinople, which legalized the schism, are worthy of historical
comparison with Uniatism. The ultimate goal of this project is the
reorientation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in such a way that it can
no longer serve the unity of the fraternal Russian and Ukrainian
peoples.
The political goal of creating all these autocephalies, all these
schismatic associations is to weaken the influence of the Orthodox
Church, the one Orthodox Church of Russia, Ukraine and
Belarus, using ideological clichés to incite enmity and create new myths that
would alienate one people from another.
Yes, military clashes really accompanied the entire history of mankind
after the fall. As one of the sad manifestations of sinfulness, military clashes, in all
likelihood, will accompany human history and beyond. However, even in situations of armed conflict, a person can and should
preserve his dignity and care for the dignity of others. Exclusion of
prohibited methods of warfare, protection of the civilian population,
observance of international humanitarian law, respect for the prisoners
and the wounded - this is what I, as the Patriarch of All Russia, call on
the parties to the conflict and ask them to do everything possible to
avoid civilian casualties.
I am convinced that the right lessons should be drawn from what is
happening in Ukraine, giving an assessment of the experiment that was
carried out on the Ukrainian people after the collapse of the USSR. The tragedy that has happened again forces the Church to raise its voice
in the name of protecting national languages and culture. No one in the
world should be disadvantaged just because he speaks or thinks in "the
wrong" language.
From the lips of certain politicians and in the media, there are often
calls for widespread infringement of the rights of the Russian-speaking
population living in the former Soviet republics, now independent
states. The so-called "cancellation of Russian culture" in the West has become
evidence of the sad moral state of society. An attempt to eradicate the
culture of a particular nation is the apogee of hatred. Worse – only an attempt to physically destroy the people who have
become objectionable.
Our society felt a connection with European culture even in the difficult
times of the Cold War and the struggle of ideologies. Western classical literature, music and painting have always been highly
valued by our compatriots who perceive European culture as an integral
part of the rich Christian civilizational heritage. So we continue to
perceive it now, despite everything that happens. I hope that those who
are now “fighting” with Pushkin and Dostoevsky, who are boycotting
Tchaikovsky competitions and refusing to perform Rachmaninoff, will sooner
or later come to realize the shamefulness and madness of their
actions.
But still I would like to talk about the future, and say it with
hope. Despite the fact that hostilities are not over yet, today it is necessary
to work for the restoration of peaceful life in Ukraine and Donbass. I am confident that our prayers will be heard and a long-awaited and
lasting peace will reign. I have no doubt that Russia will make the necessary efforts to create
this peaceful life, in which the main principle will be the preservation
of unity among peoples based on mutual understanding.
Civilizational and value differences between Western countries and
Russia are inevitable and at the moment seem difficult to overcome, but
they should not be an obstacle to peaceful coexistence, to an equal and
mutually respectful dialogue of cultures.
I would like to share with you my thoughts on what conclusions could be
drawn from the current situation. I think we are called to a deep rethinking of the vector of social and
state development of the last decades. It is important to focus not on what
some external observer thinks about our further development, but on how to
build the future of the country based on our historical experience, national
and spiritual culture, our Christian heritage. We do not need isolation from the outside world, but we need a renewed
understanding of sovereignty. Sovereignty not only political, but also
cultural; sovereignty that would extend to many areas - from economics to
law. We are turning the page of national history, this is a fact, and we
need great creative forces.
17/05/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the Day of Saint George
We won that terrible war, and we thought, like many others, that
everything would end there and there would be no more wars. How much can you kill each other, how much can you suffer, how much can you
destroy? This was the hope of the whole human race, and the United Nations was
created to prevent possible wars – and nothing happened in the
end. Thank God that there has not been a global war so far, and we will pray
that it will not happen in the future, but how many people died in local
conflicts! Therefore, today, realizing what a difficult situation is
developing in Europe, how difficult the situation is developing around our
country, we must intensify our prayer to the Lord, His Most Pure Mother, the Patroness of the Russian land,
and to Great Martyr George - the saint, so closely, deeply, ontologically
connected with our Great Victory in the Great Patriotic War. We must ask the Lord to show His mercy over our country, to protect it
from external and, I will add, internal enemies. Today is the time of special consolidation of all our people. We must all be together, we must be aware that we are going through a
difficult, dangerous and, in a sense, fateful period in our
history. And we will turn our prayers to St. George the Victorious, to all the
saints who shone in the Russian land, so that our country will remain
free, independent in the full sense of the word from all world centers
of power, because only in this way can a great Orthodox country exist,
also with a large pious Islamic population, who proved their loyalty to
Russia with their lives and their victims. This amazing combination of feat, courage, and faith of our people
gives even today hope for our victory, for getting rid of any enemies who
want to encroach on our country, on our land. Let us pray to St. George, on the day of whose memory our people won the
Victory in the most terrible war in all of human history, that he, undoubtedly accompanying us in that desperate and terrible
struggle for the survival and salvation of the people and country, will be
with us today, with our people, with our army, with our authorities. But,
first of all, that Saint George before the throne of God would pray for
the Russian land.
08/05/2022 (Source)
Excerpt from the sermon on the third Sunday after Easter
It so happened that our country almost never waged aggressive
wars. There were two cases that can give us an example and say: “But
what about the First World War? And before it, the Balkan
war? After all, you went to the Balkans, and Samsonov's army moved to
East Prussia - that means you are aggressors. Not at all! Our army went to the Balkans not in order to expand the territory of
our country, not in order to enrich the country with rich booty, not in
order to subjugate other peoples, but in order to save the Bulgarian
people from five hundred years of slavery. And name another country that has sacrificed thousands and thousands of
its sons in order to help another country the way we helped the
Bulgarians!
And the First World War? Serbs became the main goal and target of
Western forces. And this well-known provocation in Sarajevo -
everything was aimed at ensuring that Serbia, an Orthodox country close
to Russia in spirit, but living surrounded by Western countries, ceased
to exist. The West did not want to have this courageous Orthodox
people loving Russia among its peoples, and provoked the First World
War. And Russia entered this war not in order to acquire land for
itself, not in order to enrich itself, not in order to gain power over
others, but in order to save the fraternal Serbian people.
So, the two wars about which we can be accused of having gone first are
the defense of the Bulgarians and the defense of the Serbs. These
goals were not related to mercantile, material, political or geopolitical
interests - Russia was exhausting itself, Russia was sacrificing itself in
order to help others. That is why we call our army Christ-loving -
because what power, other than internal spiritual strength, can explain
the great feat of our soldiers in those two wars!
And what happened during the Great Patriotic War? A terrible enemy
attacked a country that had not gone through the best period of its
history – the 20s and 30s. Each of us who has studied history knows
how difficult, difficult and even terrible these years were for the
people. But then the war came, and all insults were forgotten, all
the repressed were ready to go and defend the Fatherland. And how
many people, whom only yesterday the authorities considered enemies of the
people, have become ardent defenders of the Motherland! Where does
all this come from? This is from our spiritual roots, this is from
our national identity, which really stems from the spiritual values of
our people. And even in a godless time, these values could not be
dismantled and destroyed, because they became part of life, part of the
soul of our people.
And today, in this military temple, we pay tribute to all those who are
now defending our Fatherland at various frontiers. We believe that
even today our army needs spiritual strength, support and, most
importantly, the prayers of all our people no less than in those times
that I recalled. And the army must remember that we love it, remember
and pray for those who are defending our Fatherland today.
I would like to appeal to the servicemen who are present here, and
through them to our entire army. Remember, brothers, that on how you
carry out your military duty, on how capable you are of defending the
Fatherland, and even, I’m not afraid of these words, to lay down your soul for your friends, according to the commandment of God, the freedom, independence,
independence of our Fatherland will depend. Independence from even the most powerful forces that today practically
rule the world, but do not rule our country, and hence all the
problems. And may the Lord enlighten all of us - the army, the people, the
youth, the elderly, our intelligentsia, and the workers, and those who
work in the countryside - and help us to realize what an important
historical moment we are going through today, how we need our prayers and
help our army, navy, all our armed forces. How we should be all together today - not threatening anyone, not
attacking anyone, but being absolutely ready to repel any aggression
against our people and our country. May the feat and example of our great commanders - saints Alexander
Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, wonderful military leaders Suvorov,
And here's something else I would like to say. Russia does not wish harm to anyone, does not want to capture and
occupy anyone, does not want to drain resources from anyone, as most of
the rich and strong countries of the world do, economically occupying
weak and helpless countries. We do not need all this, we are
self-sufficient, but we need only one thing - our true freedom, our
independence from these world centers of power, which today,
unfortunately, are becoming hostile to Russia. We must consolidate
all our forces, both spiritual and material, so that no one dares to
encroach on the sacred borders of our Fatherland.
And my words are not what our opponents would like to characterize as
"another militaristic speech of the Patriarch." It's all
nonsense! My relatives and friends died during the war or died in the
Leningrad blockade. I was born right after the war - in 1946, I
remember post-siege Leningrad. On all of us, on that first post-war
generation, lay the stamp of sorrow, sacrifice, loss, destruction. I
walked to school along Maly Prospekt of Vasilevsky Island and saw the
skeletons of destroyed houses - they had not yet been demolished, they
stood as a terrible reminder of the Leningrad blockade. And these
skeletons were very close to the house where my mother lived with her
eldest son, still a baby, when aerial bombs exploded a hundred meters
away. We all remember this, and therefore today we especially pray
and must all work together, so that the Lord protects our Fatherland
from every enemy and adversary, so that our people unite, overcoming all
disagreements and differences of opinion and life positions that are
natural for human society. Today, everything must be put aside and we
must be united in the most important thing - in our readiness to show love
for the Fatherland in a real way, both in deed and in word, and in the
ability to protect our people and our country.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who are present
here today, but most of all I would like to once again thank the authorities and our
army, which today, in conditions of practically military operations, is
serving, defending our Fatherland. And again and again, emphasizing
the importance, beauty and valor of the military feat, I urge everyone
to pray for peace, that the Lord would avert all military actions, that
the Lord would reconcile peoples, nations and states, so that peace
would become the property of the entire human race. Because the
Lord has called us to peace, not to war.
08/05/2022 (Source)
Patriarchal sermon during the Paschal commemoration of the dead in the
Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin
Grand Dukes and Duchesses - those who bore on their shoulders the burden
of enormous responsibility for the historical existence of our country,
our Church, our people. Many of them, of course, are with the Lord.
Someone is glorified, someone is not glorified, but today, praying for
them, we turn to them with a request to pray for the Russian state, for
our country, so that our sacred borders are impregnable, so that we always
have enough wisdom, strength and honour to protect them if necessary. We
also appeal to them so that love for the Fatherland never dries up,
especially in the minds and hearts of the young generation that is coming
after us.
I think it will be so, everything will be preserved, and first of all,
perhaps, through the prayers of those who lie in this cathedral, as well
as through the prayers of the host of saints who shone in the Russian
land, and through the prayers of our Church, which goes along its
historical path and, despite the dangers and difficulties of the path and
the slyness of this age, carries the word of truth about God, about His
Divine Providence, about the salvation that was brought by His Son and our
Lord Jesus Christ. And we believe: as long as faith is preserved, love for
the Fatherland and the ability to defend one's people and one's country
will be preserved with it.
We don't want to fight anyone. Russia has never attacked anyone. It is
amazing that a great and powerful country never attacked anyone - it
only defended its borders. God grant that until the end of the century
our country will be like this - strong, powerful and at the same time
loved by God. We ask the Lord that He does not reject His love from our people
and from our Church, that He would enlighten the authorities, that in
faith, piety and wisdom He would strengthen our people, that He would give
us the strength to work, live and, if necessary, fight for the free and
independent life of our people and our country to be preserved. And may
the saints help us, who shone in the Russian land. May those who rest
their bodies here help us with their prayers, but we believe that many of
them stand before the Lord with their souls. With the prayers of all, the
entire Church, heavenly and earthly, all those who has departed from us,
and who lives on our land, may the Lord protect the Russian land from internecine strife and from
the invasion of foreigners, and may it strengthen the Orthodox faith -
the only spiritual force that can really hold our people together. And we believe that the Lord will not leave us with His mercy and
grace, including in the current difficult time of the summer of His
goodness.
03/05/2022 (Source)
Full text of the commentary by the Communications Service of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on the interview given by Pope Francis to the Italian publication Corriere della sera.
It’s regrettable that a month and a half after the conversation with
Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis chose the wrong tone to convey the
content of this conversation. Such utterances can hardly further
constructive dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox
Churches, which is so necessary at the current time.
This is what Patriarch Kirill actually said in his conversation with Pope
Francis, which took place on 16th March: “I thank you for the opportunity
to hold this meeting. When we met in 2016 in Cuba, I said to you that we
were meeting at the right time and in the right place. And although our
communication is being held through the use of long-distance technology, I
still believe that we are once more talking to each other at the right
time. With your permission, I would like to share with you my perception
of the present-day difficult situation. Of course, we live in different
informational expanses: the Western media has either remained silent or
said practically very little on those facts which I would like to draw
your attention towards.”
Patriarch Kirill further noted that the conflict had begun in 2014 with
the events of Maidan in Kiev, as a result of which there was a change of
government in Ukraine. He drew special attention to those events in Odessa
and their consequences: “There was a peaceful meeting in the city of Russian speakers who were
defending their right to their own language and culture. This peaceful
gathering was attacked by Nazi groupings who beat them up and struck
them with sticks. People sought refuge in the nearest building which was
the Trade Union House. At that moment something terrible happened: the
building was locked and then burnt to the grounds. People tried to flee
by jumping from the second and third floors, and of course they
sustained terrible injuries as they hit the ground. Those who stood by
the windows decided not to jump as they were being fired upon from
below. We watched all of this as it happened live on the television.
This terrifying lesson from Odessa influenced the decisions of the
population of south-east Ukraine in defending their rights.”
Patriarch Kirill further reminded the Pope that at the end of the
Soviet period Russia received assurances that NATO would not expand a
single inch eastward. However, theses promises were not kept and even
the former Soviet Baltic republics became members of NATO. An extremely
dangerous situation had risen as a result in that the borders of NATO
were now within 130 kilometers of St. Petersburg and the time it takes
for a rocket to reach the city is a few minutes. Had NATO received
Ukraine into its membership, then the time it would take for a rocket to
reach Moscow would also be a few minutes. Russia could not and cannot
permit this.
In conclusion the Patriarch emphasized: “Of course, the present situation causes me great pain. My flock is on
both sides of the conflict and most of them are Orthodox people. Part of
the opposing side are also among your flock. I would like therefore,
leaving the geopolitical aspect to one side, pose the question of how we
and our Churches can influence the situation? How can we act together to
bring peace to the hostile parties with the single aim of establishing
peace and justice? It is very important in these conditions to avoid
further escalation.”
The response by Pope Francis was reported accurately by Vatican News in its release of 16th March: “Pope Francis thanked the Patriarch for the meeting, motivated by the desire to point out, as shepherds of their people, a path to peace, to pray for the gift of peace and for a ceasefire. The Pope said, in agreement with the Patriarch, that ‘The Church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus.’ Pope Francis added that ‘we are shepherds of the same Holy People who believe in God, in the Holy Trinity, in the Holy Mother of God: that is why we must unite in the effort to aid peace, to help those who suffer, to seek ways of peace, and to stop the fire.’”
The statement also noted that the “Pope and the Patriarch stressed the
exceptional importance of the ongoing negotiation process.”
04/05/2022 (Source)
Easter greetings to President Putin
Your Excellency, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
Christ is Risen!
Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on the great and
life-affirming feast of Holy Pascha.
Sharing the Easter message and testifying to the unity in the faith of
millions of Christians, the Church calls on her children to do good
deeds for the good of their neighbours and for the glory of the
Fatherland.
I would like to express special gratitude to you for your continued attention to the service of the Russian Orthodox Church, as
well as for supporting its cultural, educational and other socially
significant initiatives. I hope that the fruitful cooperation of the Moscow Patriarchate
with state authorities and public institutions will continue to contribute
to the preservation and consolidation of the people, the moral and
patriotic education of young people, the creation of peace and civil
harmony, and the preservation of the rich historical, spiritual and
cultural heritage of our country.
I wish you strength of mind and body, God's generous help, and blessed
success in your difficult and responsible service in the high office of
the President of the Russian Federation.
With deep and sincere respect
24/04/2022 (Source)
Excerpts of sermon on Monday after Easter
(…)
Today, too, our people especially need internal unity. Things that are
developing around our Fatherland are not easy, you are aware of this as
well as I am. And therefore, our people today must especially rally around the
historical centre of all Russia - around the city of Moscow, realizing
that our strength is only in unity. And as long as we are united and
strong, as long as we keep faith in our hearts, as long as we are
inspired by the great example of our predecessors, then Russia will be
invincible. Victory is always not only a physical victory, not only a victory of
the weapon with which the warrior meets the enemy, but it is always a
victory of the spirit. And today, many would like this spirit to
disappear. And in order for it to be so, it is necessary to sow
confusion, create new idols, draw attention to new pseudo-values. But we
must keep ours, if you like.
Our pious heroic ancestors, including those who built this cathedral,
knew and understood everything well, and therefore the cathedrals were
built like fortresses, realizing that at some point, it might be necessary
to defend behind their walls, that and happened repeatedly in the history
of our Fatherland. Suffice it to recall the heroic defence of Smolensk,
when the enemy passed through the fortress walls, and only one cathedral
remained as the last fortress and refuge for the defenders of the city.
And they did not want to surrender the cathedral - the temple was blown up
and buried under the arches of its defenders, who remained
undefeated. Let all these wonderful heroic examples inspire us today to defend the
Fatherland, to defend our true independence from the powerful centres of
power that exist today on earth. May the Lord keep us in true
freedom.
All this is directly related to the preservation of the Orthodox faith in
the hearts and minds of our people, and therefore my word is addressed
today not only to those who stand in this church, and even not only to the
children of our Church. My word today is addressed to all our people,
especially to those who, by tradition, by the faith of their ancestors,
belong to the Orthodox Church: it is time to return to our spiritual home in order to have the
strength that can help us, including in the struggle for our true
independence and our freedom. May the Lord guard our land, may the Lord guard our people, may the
Lord bless the path of those of our brothers and sisters who have been
baptized but have not yet really entered the Church. May the Lord keep
our army, our authorities and all those on whom the defence of our
Fatherland especially depends today.
In this historic cathedral of All Russia, we, strengthened by the
wondrous example of our ancestors, today raise a special prayer for the Orthodox faith, for the
preservation of the unity of our Church, for the preservation of the
unity of our people, for the freedom and independence of our
Fatherland. And may the Lord help us to live in this way, to arrange our relations
with each other, so as not to darken the Lord in any way, but so that our
life helps our prayers, so that they are heard and so that the mercy of
the Heavenly Father extends over our land, over our Fatherland, as it
stretched throughout a thousand years of history, especially in the most
dangerous, critical moments of this history. May the Lord keep our land,
our people, our Church, authorities and army for many and good years!
24/04/2022 (Source)
Sermon on the fourth Sunday of Lent, during a liturgy in the main temple of the armed forces
We sometimes think that money gives strength. Indeed, money can
sometimes give strength, and when the money runs out, then the power
ends. And sometimes money ends under tragic circumstances, and as a
result, a person suffers more than he rejoices. You can not rely on
money and wealth in the hope that they will help you climb the stairs
up. If we create wealth within ourselves, if we form a rich inner world
that is not subject to external influences, then we can remain poor, but
be rich inside. And how many such wonderful examples are known! Many of the poor
materially, but rich inwardly people have become, for example, great
scientists. Recall that the remarkable scientist Lomonosov came from
Pomors, lived in his youth in the north, was a completely poor person, but
what heights did he achieve, becoming the first Russian academician,
(…)
I am very glad that today I had the opportunity to celebrate the Divine
Liturgy in this beautiful church, in the presence of our servicemen.
Today, our Fatherland is going through a difficult time. Today, again, the
name "military man" is associated with being not only in a peaceful state,
but also being on the battlefield. Fortunately, our Fatherland does not
often face the battlefield, but the arrival of young people in the Armed
Forces who aspire to become officers, who strive to devote their lives to
defending the Fatherland, does not dry out. And if in peacetime this can
be explained by some kind of privileges or material considerations,
then in wartime service in the Armed Forces is a real feat, and this is
exactly the time we are experiencing now. The service requires readiness
from everyone who has taken the oath to defend the Motherland, not
sparing their lives.
Today the word "independence" is often applied to almost all countries of
the world. But this is wrong, because most of the countries of the world are now under the colossal influence
of one force, which today, unfortunately, opposes the force of our
people. And since this is so, since there is great strength, then we
must also be very strong. When I say "we", I mean, first of all, the
Armed Forces – but not only. All of our people today must wake up, wake
up, understand that a special time has come, on which the historical
fate of our people may depend.
That is why today I celebrated the Divine Liturgy right here, in this
church, in order to meet first of all with representatives of our Armed
Forces, to address them, and through them to our entire army, to the
navy, to all the defenders of the Fatherland, so that they realize the
historical importance of the present moment. I want to say again and
again: we are a peace-loving country and a very peace-loving,
long-suffering people who suffered from wars like few other European
nations. We have no desire for war or for doing something that could
harm others. But we have been so educated by our entire history that we
love our Fatherland and will be ready to defend it in the way that only
Russians can defend their country.
When I say these words, I do not say any empty compliments. I start from
the history of our people, from the history of our Armed Forces. After
all, we broke the back of fascism, which, undoubtedly, would have defeated
the world, if not for Russia, if not for the feat of our people. May the
Lord help us today too, so that we, being peaceful, peace-loving and
modest people, are at the same time ready – always and under any
circumstances – to protect our home.
Of course, when I say all this, I do not cease to feel anxiety for all the people who live in those
places where military clashes are taking place today. After all, all
these are the people and peoples of Holy Rus’, all these are our
brothers and sisters. But, as in the Middle Ages, wishing to weaken
Russia, various forces pushed the brothers against each other, plunging
them into internecine strife, so it is happening today. Therefore, we
must do everything we can to stop the bloodshed and avoid the danger of
internecine strife with all its consequences. But at the same time, we
must be faithful - when I say "we", I mean, first of all, military
personnel - to our oath and readiness to "lay down our lives for our
friends", as the word of God testifies.
(…)
To all of you, my dear ones — Bishops, fathers, brothers, sisters,
military personnel, military leaders, our youth — I once again cordially
greet and congratulate you on this Sunday and wish all of us to maintain
strength of mind, the ability to pray for the Fatherland, and for
ourselves, the ability to always maintain inner strength, which can be translated
into different life situations, including multiplying the power of our
Armed Forces. May the Lord keep our land, our Fatherland for many and good years!
Amen.
03/04/2022 (source)
Excerpt from the Sermon on the Second Sunday of Lent
We see how the story of the paralyzed man, whom people brought to the
Saviour, is actualized in our history. In all these historical subjects,
on which I dwelled today, the grace of God was undoubtedly present. But
there were also specific people whose names we remembered.
So today, when our Church is going through a difficult period, at least in recent
history, when many forces are trying to break the united body of our
Church, when people on Ukrainian soil are suffering grievously, we must,
like St. Sergius, like Patriarch Hermogenes, like Patriarch Tikhon,
first of all, pray for the spiritual unity of the heritage of St. Prince
Vladimir. That, despite the political boundaries that lay on the body of
historical Rus, the peoples living on this earth always recognize each
other as brothers and sisters, so that the system of common values
never collapses, so that the sword of one brother never rises against
another.
Today's Gospel reading about how people brought the paralyzed Saviour to
their feet and the Lord healed him, doesn't it help us to understand what
the Russian Church is? The One Church that came out of the Kiev Baptismal font, which is in
Russia, and in Ukraine, and in Belarus, and in many other countries, is
it not similar to those who brought the paralytic to the Saviour? After all, someone must pray for our united people, whom they want
to make paralysed! Someone must defend God's truth that we are really one people who came
out of the Kiev Baptismal font! I know how the opponents of this people
will now shout there, in Ukraine: “Again, the Patriarch says that we are
one people.” But the Patriarch cannot say otherwise, because this is
historical and God's truth. And the fact that today we live in different countries, does not change
this historical truth and cannot change it. We know that other peoples,
including those in Europe, often lived in different countries for a long
time, but never lost their common national identity. And in relation to
our people, I will say: we have not lost the single Orthodox faith.
And may the Lord help us, as a paralytic, to gain strength, and may all
those who are likened to unknown people who brought the paralytic to the
feet of the Saviour, all those who are ready to work today to preserve the
spiritual unity of our peoples, to preserve the unity of our Church, not
hesitate and not doubt the rightness of the chosen path, just as those who
brought the paralytic to the feet of the Saviour did not hesitate. May the
Lord protect the land of Rus’, the peoples who today inhabit this land,
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, because all of us, representatives of these
three peoples, are also connected by a single Slavic culture and
practically a single history. May we never forget our common roots, may we
always pray for each other. And the most important prayer should be that
the devil does not allow that terrible moment when a brother raises his
hand against a brother. Therefore, we must all pray for peace, for the
well-being of the holy Churches of God, for our united people, who today
live in different countries, but who came out of a single Kiev Baptismal
font, which is united by a common faith and a common historical
destiny.
With the prayers of the holy saints of God, starting with Prince
Vladimir, who stands at the beginning of the whole host of Russian saints,
Princess Olga, the faithful Boris and Gleb, the monks of the Kiev Caves
and all the saints who are included in the wondrous single tradition of
Russian Orthodoxy, may the Lord keep in spiritual unity our people and our
Church, the great guardian of the spiritual culture and Orthodox faith,
which formed the united people of united Holy Rus’.
20/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Address to the Supreme Church Council
Today we are to make a number of decisions according to the agenda, but
besides that to exchange opinions on the developments, in the first place,
on what is happening in Ukraine and how it affects the inter-Orthodox and
inter-confessional relations. I will share information about my video meetings with the Pope of Rome
and the Archbishop of Canterbury, when we discussed in detail primarily
the problems of the security of people in Ukraine, as well as the
relations between the Orthodox and Catholics as also linked with the
Ukraine issue. All this is important for our relations with the Catholic
Church, with the Anglican community and certainly for the Patriarch’s bilateral relations with the
Primates of these Churches. I think the meeting, though remote but a real,
face-to-face, was positive for both the preservation of good relations between our
Churches and for the formation as far as possible a common attitude to
the situation in Ukraine.
I would also like to say that the events in Ukraine demand that we make
not only a serious analysis from the ecclesial perspective, but also our
prayers, and to stress once again that the Russian Church, despite the very negative political context, is
called today to preserve the spiritual unity of our people – the Russian
and Ukrainian peoples – as one nation which has come out of the Kievan
baptismal font. Without doubt, this unity is exposed to certain dangers
in the situation of hostilities, and if we speak of an external factor, then the internet space, the
information space, has also become a battlefield, and in this space there
is much disinformation, downright lie, provocative statements, which can
arouse negative feelings among people, prevent a speedy resolution of the
conflict and reconciliation. In this context, I consider as especially
important what is happening today in our Church – in the Russian
Federation, in Ukraine, in Byelorussia, in other countries. I believe that the stand taken by the Church can become a real
peace-making factor for making a positive impact on the developments in
Ukraine, a country fraternal for us. We should be especially zealous in lifting up prayers for peace and
should certainly accompany our prayers with concrete actions. And the most
concrete and important action today is to render assistance to those
affected by this conflict – in the first place, refugees, who have found
themselves in the territory of the Russian Federation.
(…)
Most of all, it is the work of prayer and indispensable efforts to
preserve good relations between peoples who have found themselves involved
in this conflict. The Church cannot be a bearer of any other signal than a peace-making
one because our flock is everywhere, on the either side of the
barricades.
(…)
I would like to say once again that a considerable attention was
certainly given to what is going on in Ukraine as well. Once again, I would like to stress the importance of the fact that my
personal remote contacts with both the Pope of Rome and the Archbishop
of Canterbury have revealed a high level of consent and understanding.
And, perhaps, the most important impression is that our interlocutors
have not moved away from us, nor have they become our enemies, and this
means that the political context, by God’s grace, have not destroyed the
relations we have developed with our brothers or, as they say today,
partners, despite the resounding criticism from a certain part of our
church community. You remember all those calls to withdraw from the World Council of
Churches, to discontinue bilateral relations; we were told that it was a
betrayal of the Church, etc. Well, now we can see that if all this had not existed then our Church could
have become fully isolated and we could not have the least opportunity
to convey to our partners our understanding of the situation, our view
of the developments. And, which is the most important thing, we would
not have chances to see in these partners those who regard the stand of
the Russian Orthodox Church with understanding. Therefore, we have existentially received a convincing validity of the
policy of developing relations with Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians,
which our Church began to pursue in the post-war years. Of course, our
participation in the work of the World Council of Churches was a very
important factor of developing these relations and creating an atmosphere
of confidence, which helps us so much in this situation.
18/3/2022 (Source)
Excerpts from sermon on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy
[Following a description of the iconoclasm period, patriarch Kirill speaks
of the] dependence of the Church on the secular authorities, which manifested
itself in this whole story with iconoclasm! The emperor, who did not believe in icons, came and ordered everyone
not to believe in icons. Empress Theodora came, who believed in the
rightness of the Church and icon veneration, and everything returned to its
place. This dependence of the Church on an external force, dependence on those
who have political power, is the most dangerous dependence. All
members of the Church are law-abiding people, we pray for the authorities
and the army. But at the same time, every Christian reserves the
right to choose – in the event that the authorities become godless and
force the Christian to renounce the faith or, as was the case with iconoclasm, fall into heresy and force their
subordinates to follow it.
It would seem that all this is already in the past. Not at
all! My heart bleeds when I think about what is happening in
Ukraine. Is it not the same as once in Byzantium? Power comes and, for political reasons, does not consider it possible
that the majority of Orthodox believers belong to the Russian Orthodox
Church, the Moscow Patriarchate. The persecution of these people
begins. They are accused almost of treason, they are pressured not to
go to the Church, which is insultingly and blasphemously called the
"Church of the Occupiers." And, of course, there are people, as it
was during the time of iconoclasm, who immediately go in the wake of state
power – no matter what happens, no matter how the priest is deprived of a
good parish, no matter how the bishop loses his pulpit, no matter how they
accuse aiding the occupiers,
To all those who “waver along with the fluctuation of power,” it must be
said: but after all, our Church has gone through the trials of this very
wavering and has survived, despite persecution and oppression. And
today, starting from our own historical experience, we must say: we respect secular authorities, but we reserve the right to be free from
interference by authorities in the internal life of the Church. We
hope that this will be the case on Ukrainian soil, although today even the
commemoration of the name of the Patriarch in the temple for some becomes
impossible for fear for of the Jews (John 19:38).
We do not condemn anyone, but with my grieving heart I want to understand
such people. At the same time, I realize that if someone is unfaithful
in small things, then he can be unfaithful in big things (see Luke
16:10). Therefore, today my prayer is that our people in Ukraine will preserve the Orthodox
faith, so that they will not be afraid of the pressure of those who
suggest that they go into schism and thereby show loyalty to the
authorities. We pray and will continue to pray for the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, so that the Lord would enlighten and strengthen our
episcopate, our clergy, so that no shameful, insulting nicknames that
today the bearers of radical views impose on our Orthodox people, accusing
them of some kind of complicity almost to the occupiers, so that all this
filth did not darken their souls. It must be remembered that we all
belong to the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church – the same Church as in
Moscow, and in Kyiv; our Local Church, martyr and confessor. And God grant that we
all preserve unity, regardless of any external pressures and any efforts of
forces alien to the Church, to destroy the spiritual unity of our
peoples. When someone, out of fear, refuses to commemorate the Patriarch, then
this, of course, is a sign of weakness. It doesn't offend
me. But this is dangerous for the spiritual life of those who deviate
from the truth in small things. Today we do not commemorate the
Patriarch, because it is scary, but tomorrow someone may demand more. But this is dangerous for the spiritual life of those who deviate
from the truth in small things.
May the Lord keep our Church on Ukrainian land, His Beatitude
Metropolitan Onufry, the entire episcopate, for whom we pray, with whom we
are together in these difficult days. We believe that the Orthodox
faith and the Orthodox Church will not suffer damage from the ongoing
political processes, which we hope will soon pass. May the Lord
protect our Church, strengthen our people and help all of us, Russian
Orthodox people. I repeat: when I say “Russians”, I mean the words
“where did the Russian land come from” from The Tale of Bygone Years. I pray for everyone who lives in Ukraine, in Belarus, in our
Russian land, that we all be united in spirit and maintain unity in
faith. May the Lord help us, and about this today, on the day of the
Triumph of Orthodoxy, our special prayer is to preserve unity in faith,
unity in spirit, remembering that we have the same saints, one spiritual
tradition, often common spiritual fathers, monastics – one people of
God. Sorrow will pass, but it is very important that this sorrow does
not weaken our inner spiritual strength. If we endure, then our Russian land will be preserved, which now includes
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and our Church, whose children live in different states almost all over
the planet. And we believe that the Lord will be with us if we preserve
the purity of the Orthodox faith, the guardians of which we especially
remember on the first Sunday of Great Lent. Amen.
13/03/2021 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Response to letter from the World Council of Churches
(…)
These days, millions of Christians all over the world in their prayers and thoughts
turn to the dramatic developments in Ukraine.
As you know, this conflict did not start today. It is my firm belief that its initiators are not the peoples of Russia
and Ukraine, who came from one Kievan baptismal font, are united by common
faith, common saints and prayers, and share common historical fate.
The origins of the confrontation lie in the relationships between the
West and Russia. By the 1990s Russia had been promised that its security and dignity would
be respected. However, as time went by, the forces overtly considering
Russia to be their enemy came close to its borders. Year after year, month after month, the NATO member states have been
building up their military presence, disregarding Russia’s concerns that
these weapons may one day be used against it.
Moreover, the political forces which make it their aim to contain Russia were not
going to fight against it themselves. They were planning to use other means, having tried to make the brotherly
peoples – Russians and Ukrainians – enemies. They spared no effort, no
funds to flood Ukraine with weapons and warfare instructors. Yet, the most
terrible thing is not the weapons, but the attempt to “re-educate,” to
mentally remake Ukrainians and Russians living in Ukraine into enemies of
Russia.
Pursuing the same end was the church schism created by Patriarch
Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2018. It has taken its toll on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
As far back as 2014, when blood was being shed in Kiev’s Maidan and there
were first victims, the WCC expressed its concern. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC General Secretary at the time, said on March
3, 2014, “The World Council of Churches is deeply concerned by the current
dangerous developments in Ukraine. The situation puts many innocent lives
in grave jeopardy. And like a bitter wind from the Cold War, it risks
further undermining the international community’s capacity to act now or
in the future on the many urgent issues that will require a collective and
principled response.”
That was also when an armed conflict broke out in the Donbas region,
whose population was defending their right to speak the Russian language,
demanding respect for their historical and cultural tradition. However, their voices went unheard, just as thousands of victims among
the Donbas population went unnoticed in the Western world.
This tragic conflict has become a part of the large-scale geopolitical
strategy aimed, first and foremost, at weakening Russia.
And now the Western leaders are imposing such economic sanctions on
Russia that will be harmful to everyone. They make their intentions blatantly obvious – to bring sufferings not
only to the Russian political or military leaders, but specifically to the
Russian people. Russophobia is spreading across the Western world at an unprecedented
pace.
I pray unceasingly that by His power the Lord help establish the lasting
and justice-based peace as soon as possible. I ask you and our brothers in Christ, united in the Council, to share
this prayer with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Dear Father Ioan, I express my hope that even in these trying times, as has been the case
throughout its history, the World Council of Churches will be able to
remain a platform for unbiased dialogue, free from political preferences
and one-sided approach.
May the Lord preserve and save the peoples of Russia and Ukraine!
10/03/2022 (Source)
Patriarchal Sermon on Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
The time of Great Lent is a time of repentance and prayer. For what? To free ourselves from the captivity in which we fall, committing
ungodly, sinful deeds. We are captured by sin. A person does not even notice how this happens – somewhere he told a lie,
somewhere he distorted the facts, somewhere he answered inappropriately
and offended the interlocutor. It is from such small conflicts that alienation grows, people become
enemies. And sometimes conflicts are fomented by a third party who has an
interest in two people quarreling – this happens all the time. Everyone, probably, went through such a temptation when you realize that
you, having nothing bad in your heart towards another person, suddenly
become an enemy in his eyes. And then it turns out that someone worked and
inspired the one
Such domestic conflicts are very well known to all of us, and since they
are most often based on lies, we must remember who the father of lies
is. The devil is the father of lies, and his goal is to destroy human souls,
to push people into conflict, because conflict liberates
passions. What a person would never say or do in a calm state, he begins to say and
do if he comes into conflict with his neighbour, if he sees an enemy in
him. Then some kind of animal, natural element is liberated in a person, and
we know what terrible forms conflicts take. Families are falling apart,
people are dying, but this has to do not only with interpersonal
relationships, but also with conflicts between peoples, between
countries.
Now we are going through a conflict between Russia and
Ukraine. Let's think about what really can divide us? We are practically one
people, bound by historical fate, we all came out of the Kiev font
together, we are united by faith, our saints, common hope, the same
prayers. What can separate us?! But the enemy of the human race -
through specific people, through specific associations of people -
throws lies into the relations between our peoples, and on the basis of
this lie a conflict develops. And we know that this is not just a quarrel between neighbours, but a
conflict in which states are involved, that is, institutions that have the
legal right to use force, forcing their citizens to obey if they violate
the laws, or forcing other countries if they see there is a threat in them, to
ensure that this threat does not exist.
In other words, today two fraternal peoples have entered into a conflict – but in fact
one, the Russian people. Let me remind you again and again of the words of The Tale of Bygone
Years, our historical chronicle, which tells “where the Russian land came
from”, and then comes the story of Kyiv. Russia is one country, one people, but this people turned out to be
very strong, and the neighbours, frightened by its strength, began to do
everything to divide this people, to inspire parts of this people that
you are not at all one people. And we know to what a terrible climax the consequence of this
suggestion is now reaching, when someone does not see a brother in his
brother, but sees an enemy. And it's terrible that there are some
religious organizations (I can't even dare to call them religious) that
raise the need to fight against the fraternal Russian people to the
shield of their preaching.
The Church, which measures time not in days, not in months, not in years,
but in centuries and millennia, in its historical experience keeps the
memory of the many conflicts that have been since ancient times – in
Ancient Rome, Byzantium, the Old Russian state, the Russian Empire, modern
states on territory of historical Russia. The Church remembers these conflicts and knows what dire consequences
they have always led to. And today, with all their might, the enemies of both the Russian and Ukrainian peoples from the outside
are trying to instill that you are not brothers, but you are enemies,
and you must fight each other. And after all someone succumbs to this temptation! And we, of course, regret and mourn the fact that political forces have
arisen on our close, native Ukrainian land, which, using the idea of an
enemy in relation to the Russian people, are shaping policy towards Russia
today.
Let's not talk about those who set fire to this war – God will judge
them, and He will punish them. Today we need to talk about ourselves, and I call on all of you, my dear
ones, first of all, to intensify the prayer that all military confrontation between Russia and
Ukraine will stop, so that our people will once again be able to realize
the existence of common spiritual roots and common spiritual strength,
which is our undivided Church, residing in Russia, in Ukraine and in
other countries. This is indeed a guarantee of salvation, a guarantee of the future
world, but that is precisely why she is being persecuted there today, on
Ukrainian soil, by those who are not interested in peace. Therefore, we must pray especially for His Beatitude Vladyka, Primate of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, for the Ukrainian episcopate, but also, of
course, for our Church.
But here's something else I'd like to say. Where the devil is, there is always a lie. Even today – what a huge amount of lies are being spread! There was even such a newfangled word "fake" as a synonym for lies. But
this is an ordinary devilish lie, because it is lies that are used today to deepen the gulf between two
peoples, to make them enemies; and we must be very vigilant to
everything that is being said in connection with the mournful conflict
that has arisen in the Donbass.
Our Church is both in Russia and, I hope, in Ukraine, because we have
common values, common ideals, a common Christian conscience, after
all. We cannot act otherwise than to pray for peace and try to reduce the
degree of confrontation, the degree of emotional political discussions, often overstepping
the bounds of decency. We must do everything to pacify and pacify our hearts so that the enemy
of the human race does not manage to destroy our spiritual unity, around
which the religious and cultural life of our united people, Russians and
Ukrainians, was formed.
Of course, the topic related to Russian-Ukrainian relations has now
become a part of big politics or, as they say now,
geopolitics. And one of the goals of this geopolitics is the weakening of Russia, which
has become a strong, really powerful country. But how disgusting and
vile to use the fraternal people to achieve these geopolitical goals!
How terrible to set these people against their brothers! How terrible it
is to arm him so that he enters into a struggle with his brothers of the
same blood and of the same faith! All those who do this in the form of
propaganda that has massively attacked Ukraine, in the form of concrete
actions, in the form of creating prerequisites for the expansion of the
military conflict - all these people are enemies of both Russia and
Ukraine. They are against our unity, against our spiritual roots, regardless of
whether they call themselves believers or non-believers.
May the Lord help all of us — Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, all peoples who came from the same
root, came out of the Kiev Baptismal Font — to maintain our spiritual unity, to prevent the division of our
Church. By the way, those who sought to divide the peoples began by dividing the Church,
creating some schisms in Ukraine. This started in order to break the spiritual unity, but by the grace of
God this unity is preserved.
Today I especially prayed for His Beatitude Onuphry, for the episcopate, for
the clergy, for the believing people of Ukraine, so that the Lord would
save them from the wiles of the evil one, keep them in the understanding
that any war between Orthodox brothers who belong to one Church is the
work of the devil, not God's. And therefore, our one Church, whether in Russia, in Ukraine, in other
countries, must today pray for peace, for an end to internecine strife, as
St. Sergius did, as our Russian Church did when the Russian princes
entered into internecine strife, destroying each other. So today we will not follow the path to which we are called, provoking the
involvement of the Church in the conflict, but we will follow the path
of St. Sergius and pray for the unity of Holy Russia so that no forces
can divide our people.
May the Lord bless our land – historical Rus’! May the Lord save us from divisions in the Church, may He help us overcome all those divisions that are generated not by
differences in faith, but by the influence of political forces on
certain church circles. So that all this remains in the past and that we all, with one mouth
and one heart, can glorify the holy and magnificent name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit and, guarding ourselves with the Cross, drive
away any enemy, demonic power from our common life and from our fate.
Amen.
09/03/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
Excerpts from the Patriarchal Sermon on Cheesefare Week after the Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
(…)
We know that this spring has been overshadowed by grave events related to the
deterioration of the political situation in the Donbass, practically the outbreak of hostilities. I would like to say something
on this subject.
For eight years there have been attempts to destroy what exists in the
Donbass. And in the Donbass there is rejection, a fundamental rejection
of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim
world power. Today there is such a test for the loyalty of this government, a kind
of pass to that “happy” world, the world of excess consumption, the world of visible “freedom”. Do you
know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time
terrible – this is a gay parade. The demands on many to hold a gay parade are a test of loyalty to that
very powerful world; and we know that if people or countries reject
these demands, then they do not enter into that world, they become
strangers to it.
But we know what this sin is, which is promoted through the so-called
marches of dignity. This is a sin that is condemned by the Word of God –
both the Old and the New Testament. Moreover, the Lord, condemning sin,
does not condemn the sinner. He only calls him to repentance, but not to
ensure that through a sinful person and his behaviour, sin becomes a life
standard, a variation of human behaviour – respected and acceptable.
If humanity recognizes that sin is not a violation of God's law, if
humanity agrees that sin is one of the options for human behaviour, then
human civilization will end there. And gay parades are designed to
demonstrate that sin is one of the variations of human behaviour. That is
why in order to enter the club of those countries, it is necessary to hold
a gay pride parade. Not to make a political statement “we are with you”,
not to sign any agreements, but to hold a gay parade. And we know how
people resist these demands and how this resistance is suppressed by
force. This means that we are talking about imposing by force a sin
condemned by God's law, and therefore, by force to impose on people the
denial of God and His truth.
Therefore, what is happening today in the sphere of international
relations has not only political significance. We are talking about something different and much more important
than politics. We are talking about human salvation, about
where humanity will end up, on which side of God the Saviour, who comes
into the world as the Judge and Creator, on the right or on the left.
Today, out of weakness, stupidity, ignorance, and most often out of
unwillingness to resist, many go there, to the left side. And all that is
connected with the justification of sin, condemned by the Bible, is today
a test for our faithfulness to the Lord, for our ability to confess faith
in our Saviour.
Everything that I say has not just some theoretical meaning and not only
a spiritual meaning. Around this topic today there is a real war. Who is attacking Ukraine today, where the suppression and extermination
of people in the Donbass has been going on for eight years; eight years
of suffering and the whole world is silent – what does that mean? But we know that our brothers and sisters
are really suffering; moreover, they may suffer for their loyalty to the
Church. And so today, on Forgiveness Sunday, on the one hand, as your
shepherd, I call on everyone to forgive sins and insults, including where it is
very difficult to do this, where people are at war with each other. But forgiveness without justice is capitulation and weakness.
Therefore, forgiveness must be accompanied by the indispensable
preservation of the right to stand on the side of the world, on the side
of God's truth, on the side of the Divine commandments.
All of the above indicates that we have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance. I know how, unfortunately, Orthodox people, believers, choosing the path of least resistance in this war, do not reflect on everything that we are thinking about today, but humbly follow the path that the powers that be show them. We do not condemn anyone, we do not invite anyone to come to the cross, we just say to ourselves: we will be faithful to the word of God, we will be faithful to His law, we will be faithful to the law of love and justice, and if we see violations of this law, we will never put up with those who destroy this law, blurring the line between holiness and sin, and even more so with those who promote sin as an example or as one of the models of human behaviour.
Today, our brothers in the Donbass, Orthodox people, are undoubtedly
suffering, and we cannot but be with them, first of all in prayer. It is necessary to pray that the Lord would
help them to preserve the Orthodox faith, not to succumb to temptations
and temptations. At the same time, we must pray that peace will come as soon as
possible, that the blood of our brothers and sisters will stop, that the
Lord will incline His mercy to the long-suffering Donbass land, which
has been bearing this mournful stamp for eight years, generated by human
sin and hatred.
(…)
And let us pray that all those who are fighting today, who are shedding blood, who are suffering, will also enter into this joy of the Resurrection in peace and tranquility. Because what joy will there be if some are in the world, while others are in the power of evil and in the sorrow of internecine warfare?
Prayer for the speedy restoration of peace, pronounced by the Patriarch on Forgiveness Sunday
O Holy and merciful God, Lord Jesus Christ our God, through the prayers
of the All-Pure Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, the holy Grand Duke
Vladimir and Grand Duchess Olga, the holy New Martyrs and Confessors of
our Church, Our venerable and godly fathers Anthony and
Theodosius, wonderworkers of the Kievo-Pechersk monastery,
Sergius, hegumen of Radonezh, Job of Pochaev, Seraphim of Sarov and all
the saints; make our prayer favourable for the Church and for all Your
people.
From one baptismal font, in the days of holy Prince Vladimir, we Thy
children have received grace: establish in our hearts a spirit of
brotherly love and peace for ever!
To the foreign people who desire to be at war and to fight against Holy
Rus', – forbid them and overthrow their plans.
Through Thy grace incline those who hold power to good; strengthen the soldiers, that they keep Thy commandments;
provide homes for the homeless; nourish the hungry; strengthen and heal
those who are in affliction and suffering; give hope and comfort to those
who are in confusion and sorrow, and give forgiveness of sins and a blessed repose to those who have been
killed in battle.
Fill us with faith, hope and love that we may confess to Thee, our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, with Thy everlasting Father, Thy Holy and
Life-giving Spirit, in one word and with one heart, for ever and ever.
Amen.
06/03/2022 (Source. I had considerable difficulty obtaining a good translation of this prayer. I take full responsibility for the final result, obtained through a mix of automatic translations and edited for clarity. The original can be read in the link provided. If anybody detects mistakes, please let me know in the comments. A few changes were made since I first posted it, following suggestions from a Russian speaker. The most significant being replacing "Holy Russia" with "Holy Rus'")
Excerpt from a Sunday homily
Today we also need unity – the unity with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. We are aware of the difficult circumstances encountered today by the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. I especially prayed
today for His Beatitude the Primate and certainly for the whole episcopate
and all the faithful people of Ukraine; and I call you to lift up these
prayers too. God forbid that the present political situation in fraternal Ukraine so
close to us should be aimed at making the evil forces that have always
strived against the unity of Rus’ and the Russian Church, gain the upper
hand. God forbid that a terrible line stained with the blood of our brothers
should be drawn between Russia and Ukraine. We should pray for the restoration of peace, for the restoration of good
fraternal relations between our peoples. A guarantee of this fellowship is
our united Orthodox Church represented in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church headed by His Beatitude Onuphry. We prayed for them today as well. We
prayed that the Lord may give them strength and wisdom to repulse the
attacks of the evil one while serving their people in faith and truth
promoting peace by all possible ways.
May the Lord preserve our Church in unity. May the Lord protect from fratricidal battle the peoples comprising the
one space of the Russian Orthodox Church. It must not be allowed to give the dark and hostile external forces an
occasion to laugh at us; we should do everything to preserve peace between our peoples while
protecting our common historical Motherland against every outside action
that can destroy this unity.
Today we lift up a special prayer for His Beatitude Onuphry, for our
Church and for our devout faithful. May the Lord preserve the Russian land. When I say “Russian”, I use the ancient expression from “A Tale of
Bygone Years” – “Wherefrom has the Russian land come”, the land which
now includes Russia and Ukraine and Belarus and other tribes and
peoples. That the Lord may protect the Russian land against external enemies, against internal disorders, that the unity of our Church may strengthen
and that by God’s mercy all the temptations, diabolical attacks,
provocations may retreat and that our devout people in Ukraine may enjoy
peace and tranquillity – these are our prayers today. And I ask you all to
mention His Beatitude Onuphry in your prayers in church and at home, to
mention our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and to pray for peace.
27/2/2022 (Source. Edited for clarity)
It is with deep and heartfelt pain that I perceive the suffering of people caused by the events taking place.
As the Patriarch of All Russia and the Primate of the Church, whose flock is in Russia, Ukraine and other countries, I deeply
empathize with everyone who has been touched by misfortune.
I call on all parties to the conflict to do everything possible to
avoid civilian casualties.
I appeal to bishops, pastors, monastics and laity with an appeal to
provide all possible assistance to all victims, including refugees, people
left without shelter and livelihood.
The Russian and Ukrainian peoples have a common centuries-old history
dating back to the Baptism of Russia by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles
Prince Vladimir. I believe that this God-given community will help overcome the divisions
and contradictions that have arisen that have led to the current
conflict.
I call on the entirety of the Russian Orthodox Church to offer up a
deep, fervent prayer for the speedy restoration of peace.
May the all-merciful Lord, through the intercession of our Most Pure Lady
Theotokos and all the saints, preserve the Russian, Ukrainian and other
peoples, which our Church spiritually unites!
24-2-2022 (Source)
Prayer on anniversary of invasion
We offer our thanksgiving prayers to God, His
Most Pure Mother and all the saints for the fact that the Lord helped us
preserve our Ukrainian state. Today we commemorate the anniversary of the
beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine.
Although this brutal war has been going on for 9 years, the last year has been
very difficult. We thank God, we thank every defender of our Ukraine, the
newest hero who carries out a feat, defending our Ukrainian land. We are grateful
to all of you, our newest heroes-warriors, grateful to every volunteer, people
of good will, who, having united, are still doing good deeds of charity.
(…)
We must also remember those who are no longer
with us – after all, the Mykhailo Golden-roofed Monastery has become the center
of commemoration of our fallen newest heroes. We remember them, we pray for
them and we have no right to forget them – they gave the most precious thing,
their lives, for the sake of each of us, for the sake of the peaceful sky that
we have.
24/02/2023 (Source)
During meeting with Ukrainian soldiers
The Church prays for you, our newest heroes. We
are unbreakable and together we will win. Morally, we have already won and
the whole world believed in our victory. So we will fight to the end and drive the enemy out of our land.
24/02/2023
(Source)
During meeting with Apostolic Nuncio Visvaldas
Kulbokas
We support the desire of the Ukrainian state to
protect our fellow citizens and freedom of religion from the hybrid influence
of Russian propaganda, of which, unfortunately, the Russian Church has become
an instrument. It is not about the prohibition of religion, but rather about
the prohibition of Russian religious centers, which are controlled by the Putin
administration, to
have influence on religious organizations in Ukraine.
21/02/2023 (Source)
Call for prayer and fasting on anniversary of
the invasion
The anniversary of the full-scale Russian
invasion of Ukraine is approaching, the anniversary of the great war for the
freedom of our Motherland. As Christians, we should meet this day with prayer
and fasting.
Therefore, I bless, in addition to our usual
prayers, on February 24 in our monasteries and cathedrals, and wherever and for
whom there will be such an opportunity, during the day, read the Psalter with a
prayer for our soldiers, for the victory of truth and a just peace for Ukraine.
Let's spend this day in fasting and prayer for
our defenders, for the living and the dead, for the soldiers and for the
civilians who suffered and continue to suffer from the invasion of the evil
Russian empire. And let with God's help the time of war be shortened, and the
day of victory and peace draw closer. Amen!
17/02/2023 (Source)
Words during a meeting with the vice-minister
of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania
We pray and believe that this war will end with
our victory, because the truth we stand for deserves it. A new generation of
young people has already grown up, who do not want to have anything to do with
Russia, who want to live in their single, independent, European state.
16/02/2023 (Source)
Speech on the fourth anniversary of the primate’s
enthronement
The walls of Saint Sophia limit physical space,
separating it from the rest of the world. But at the same time, they seem to
expand the spiritual space, help us to go beyond the visible space and at the
current time, help us feel that we are not left in grief, in troubles,
suffering, that we are not left alone before the challenges of the aggression
of the Russian empire of evil. With us is our Lord and Saviour, with us the Virgin of Oranta, with us
the host of heaven and the council of saints, glorified by exploits on the land
of Russia-Ukraine. And the main thing is that we have the truth and moral
victory on our side. And therefore, no matter how difficult it is to confront
the forces of evil that destroy and destroy Ukraine, we believe that with God's
help we can achieve victory and win a just peace. We pray for this here in
Saint Sophia, and every day in all our churches and in every heart.
(…)
We gave thanks to God and His holy saints, and
it is our duty, as Christians, never to forget to thank the Lord for
everything, because all good has its source from our Creator. But in addition
to thanking God on this day, as on every day to come, we must thank our brave
new heroes, our defenders, soldiers, sons and daughters of Ukraine, thanks to
whose sacrificial heroism we preserve dignity and freedom. Every month, day,
every moment of our will, our life, our prayer in our native language and work
have a dear, extraordinary price - the price of the blood given by our
defenders, the price of their lives. Let's never forget that!
(…)
It should not be forgotten that evil does not
originate from man, but from evil spirits and their chief, the devil. And he
sows, like tares among the wheat, temptations and falsehood, trying to incline
every person to evil. Therefore, we should resist not only foreigners,
Russian aggressors who are fighting against Ukraine, but also resist the
temptations that attack our souls. Discord, enmity, corruption, moral
degradation are no less dangerous for Ukraine than Russian tanks, bombs and
missiles. But when we fight against these temptations, we will overcome
them too, with God's help.
03/02/2023 (Source)
Statement of the Holy Synod regarding the need
to legally limit the intervention of the aggressor country in the religious
life of Ukraine
The aggression of the Russian Federation
against Ukraine and the occupation of part of the territory of our state have
been going on for almost nine years. The ideological basis for this aggression
is the theory of the "Russian peace", which denies the unique
identity of the Ukrainian nation, denies the right of the Ukrainian people to
their own statehood and the Local Orthodox Church. Inspired by the ideology of
the "Russian peace", the troops of the aggressor country commit mass
terror and acts of genocide in the occupied territories and against the
civilian population throughout Ukraine.
Numerous indisputable facts testify to the
decisive, conscious and active participation of the leadership, clergy and many
supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian Orthodox Church) in supporting
and spreading the ideology of the "Russian peace", which contains
elements of heretical ethnophiletism. Personally, the head of the Russian
Orthodox Church Kyryll Gundyaev gives a public blessing to the Russian political
and military leadership for the continuation of the aggressive war against
Ukraine.
It is a widely known and indisputable fact that
the Moscow Patriarchate, as the governing center of the Russian Orthodox
Church, as well as its structural subdivisions, are under the decisive
influence of the political leadership of the Russian Federation and the Russian
special services. Other religious associations with their headquarters in the
Russian Federation are also under similar influence to a greater or lesser extent.
In the conditions of the war against Ukraine, this influence is used as a tool
of hybrid aggression against our country, to justify collaboration with the
occupiers on captured Ukrainian lands, to incline Ukrainian citizens to treason
against the Motherland and to act in the interests of the aggressor.
In this regard, the protection of the security
of Ukraine, the protection of citizens of Ukraine and religious organizations
from their use by an aggressor for criminal purposes is a fully justified goal,
for the achievement of which it is necessary to introduce restrictions on the
influence of Russian religious centers, and through them - on the political and
military leadership and special services aggressor countries on religious
organizations in Ukraine.
Therefore, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
supports the need to introduce a legislative ban on subordination (affiliation)
of religious organizations in Ukraine to religious associations in the
aggressor country - the Russian Federation. Such a ban does not apply to
freedom of religion and belief, but only to administrative and legal issues. In conditions where the threat from
the aggressor country's use of pseudo-religious motivation and the
administrative influence of Russian religious centers on religious
organizations in Ukraine is quite real and poses a significant danger to the
rights and freedoms of all citizens of Ukraine, to the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of our state, the establishment of legislative
restrictions on the subordination of religious organizations in Ukraine to the
Russian religious association is a democratic and necessary reaction to
aggression.
If the religious association, which, contrary
to the law, continues to bear the name "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" is
really independent from the Russian Orthodox Church, as its spokesmen have been
saying for some time, such a legislative norm will not affect its position in
any way, but on the contrary, it will protect this association from criminal
Russian interference. However, as established by the religious examination, the
religious association "UPC" actually remains a part of the Russian
Orthodox Church. Its leadership, in concert with the aggressor country, spreads
slander about Ukraine regarding the alleged "persecutions", while at
the same time almost completely ignoring the numerous and systematic real facts
of violations of the right to freedom of conscience, as well as other human
rights and freedoms, in the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian
Federation.
Taking into account all the above, the Holy
Synod calls on the Ukrainian state to continue its work aimed at protecting
national security in the religious sphere, and the international community to
take an understanding and adequate approach to the measures taken by Ukraine in
its resistance to Russian hybrid aggression.
02/02/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with head of Kherson
Military Administration
The occupiers are constantly mistaken when they
think that by terrorizing the civilian population they will be able to break
our will to protect the Motherland. Ukraine is not a totalitarian state, like
theirs, so we should not be intimidated. We are very self-organized and will
fight for our God-given land and freedom
31/01/2023 (Source)
Words to Pope Francis during visit of the
Council of Churches to the Vatican
Together with our country, with our people, we
are experiencing the tragedy of the war that Russia brought to our land.
Among us are those who were directly affected by Russian aggression and its
consequences. At the same time, we are all witnesses of the suffering,
grief, destruction, and irreparable losses that the Ukrainian people suffer every
day from the actions of the aggressor.
We know how important your voice, as the head
of the Catholic Church, is for hundreds of millions of Christians around the
world and for all people of good will. It is also important for Ukraine, where
wounds are open and bleeding, and therefore hearts and souls are especially
sensitive.
We thank you for your prayers for Ukraine. I am
sure that thanks to your call in this prayer for the victory of truth and a
just peace, millions of voices are united every day. And we believe that the
spiritual power of love and compassion, the power of God's mercy is able to
work miracles, is able to stop the spread of evil and defeat it.
Therefore, we ask you, Your Holiness, to
call Christians of the world to fast and pray for the victory of truth and a
just peace for Ukraine on February 24 - the day when a year ago the great
aggression against our country began. Such an opinion was born between us
during communication and we ask you to support this initiative.
We are sincerely grateful to Your Holiness for
the calls to show mercy to refugees, to provide humanitarian aid to those in
need. We thank all the communities and institutions of the Catholic Church, all
the faithful who have done and continue to do good deeds for our suffering
people.
Your Holiness!
As the Primate of the Local Orthodox Church of
Ukraine, the largest religious community in our country, as evidenced by the
data of sociological surveys, I want to emphasize our openness to dialogue and
cooperation. The leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Roman
Catholic Church in Ukraine present here can confirm that we have had successful
cooperation and constructive relations for many years. As one of the Local
Churches in the family of World Orthodoxy, we testify to the desire of the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine to join the broad Orthodox-Catholic ecumenical
dialogue and, in particular, to direct interaction with the Apostolic Capital.
I am sure that it will benefit both our Churches and Ukraine.
In conclusion, I would like to present to you,
Your Holiness, a gift – a sculptural metal copy of the "Great Amber Heart
of Ukraine". The unique amber stone in the shape of a wounded heart, which
is depicted in this sculpture, was found in the north of Ukraine. At the
time of the invasion, the "Amber Heart" was kept in Buch, and during
the Russian occupation of this city, it was buried in the ground and thus saved
from abduction. May this sculptural image of wounded Ukrainian hearts,
which reminds of the tragedy of the genocide committed by the Russian occupiers
in Buch and other places in Ukraine, inspire further work for healing, for the
establishment of truth and opposition to evil.
25/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon on the feast day of
Epiphany
Today we are celebrating the Divine Liturgy for
the second time in this cathedral church of the Pechersk Lavra. In times
of great grief and suffering brought to our common home by the war unleashed by
the preachers of the ideology of "Russian peace", we see in these services
a sign of spiritual comfort, God's favor and inspiration for further work to renew this
shrine. We pray, dear brothers and sisters, for our Pechersk Lavra and for
its renewal. May the Lord, through the intercession of His Most Pure
Mother, through the prayers of our fathers Anthony and Theodosius and all the
Saints of Pechersk, bless our work with success!
Dear brothers and sisters!
These days, in the midst of the sea of
suffering that Russia brought with the war to our native home, two tragedies
especially touched people's hearts. Moscow's terrorist attack on the city
of Dnipro - a city that proudly bears the name of our blessed river, the second
Jordan and the baptismal font of Ukraine-Russia - this attack took the lives of
many innocent children and adults. Adults and children also became victims
of the plane crash in Brovary yesterday. For the victims of these
tragedies, for those whose lives were tragically cut short due to the lawless
war imposed on us by Russia, today we will offer our funeral prayers,
although this is not usually part of the holiday service. May the Lord
accept the souls of the dead in His Kingdom and rest with the saints! May
God receive the souls of all soldiers who gave their lives in the struggle for
Ukraine, for truth and freedom, and all peaceful residents in His Heavenly
Homes, who died from the invasion of foreigners in this war! Eternal
memory to them!
19/01/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with Ukrainian soldiers
Today we have gathered to congratulate you on
Christmas and celebrate your merits. You have proven that you are strong and
indomitable and will not give your God-given land to the Russian invaders. The
Lord will certainly help us, because we stand for the truth and for our people,
and the one who came to us with evil will be punished. In addition to the
physical, we are also waging a spiritual struggle, in which there are already
obvious results, so we will continue to free Ukraine from Moscow’s spiritual
yoke. However, all this is possible thanks to the fact that you carry your
difficult feat. So may the Lord protect you and give you strength and
inspiration for further righteous struggle.
17/01/2023 (Source)
Words during celebration in the Pechersk Lavra
On this day, we especially turn to Saint Peter,
as one of the spiritual leaders of the Pechersk monastery, with a prayer and
ask: saint our father Peter, you are now standing before the Throne of the Most
High God – pray to him for Kyiv, your capital city, and for all of Rus' –
Ukraine, for which you were a good archpastor, so that soon the enemies who
torment the state and the Ukrainian people will be defeated and expelled from
our land.
14/01/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with Brigadier General
Anatoly Shevchenko
It is necessary to resolve the issue with
collaborators in cassocks once and for all, because the Moscow Patriarchate, no
matter what it calls itself here, is the last significant bridgehead of the
enemy inside Ukraine.
12/01/2023 (Source)
Words during meeting with the head of the
Military Chaplaincy Service of the Armed Forces
It is our duty to support soldiers who constantly
risk their lives defending Ukraine. Therefore, we will continue to make efforts to develop and strengthen
our institute of military chaplaincy. After all, the spiritual support of those
who are going through the hell of war is extremely important. I believe and
pray every day for our just victory
10/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from Sermon
Dear brothers and sisters! Christ was
born!
On the Sunday after Christmas, the Church
reminds us of two sad events - the flight of the Virgin Mary with the Infant
God and the righteous Joseph to Egypt and the cruel extermination of children
in Bethlehem and its surroundings by the order of King Herod. In the midst
of the joy we have, remembering and glorifying the birth of the Savior, from
the Gospel we hear about pain, bloodshed and suffering from the action of
evil. And if in past years such memories had a greater moral and
educational significance for us, now, in the time of indescribable suffering
brought to our land by the newest Herod and his embittered servants, these
memories directly echo with pain in our souls.
After all, millions of our fellow citizens
became forced refugees due to Russian aggression, just as the Mother of God and
the Child and Elder Joseph - Her betrothed and guardian - were
refugees. Women, children, people of the older generation, escaping from
the murderers of the Kremlin dictator, are forced to leave their
Motherland, their native home and flee to another land, often far away and
foreign, in order to find safety and protection from cruelty and violence
there. And hundreds of children's lives, thousands of lives of
civilians of Ukrainian towns and villages have already been taken and continue
to be taken by the murderers sent by the Kremlin's Herod.
Mariupol and Volnovakha, Bucha, Borodyanka and
Irpin, Kharkiv and Izyum, Kherson and Bakhmut - just listing all the places of
crimes, acts of terror and genocide committed by Russian aggressors on
Ukrainian soil would require a lot of time. And behind each such name are
hundreds and thousands of lives cut off or crippled by war.
Therefore, although we celebrate now and
glorify the event of the birth of the Son of God and the Saviour of the world,
we do not forget about the great suffering that our brothers and sisters are
experiencing in these very days and hours. We remember them in prayer, we
ask for God's help and protection for them. We pray for the repose of the
souls of the innocent victims of the Russian attack. We ask for recovery,
healing of physical and mental wounds for those injured and maimed by Russian
bombs, bullets and rockets. We ask for protection and help for forced
refugees and displaced persons who, like Christ and His earthly parents, left
their native land, seeking protection from danger. May the Lord inspire
mercy in the hearts of people of good will who take care of our refugees, and
may He reward them a hundredfold for their kindness and sacrifice.
Again and again, in our prayers, we remember
our newest heroes, the brave warriors - defenders of Ukraine. Thanks to
their daily sacrifice, thanks to their steadfastness, we have the opportunity
to celebrate Christmas in relative peace. For this, for our freedom and
independence, we have to pay a high price every day and every hour. We do
not forget this and never will!
Current events and the events of the gospel
time, the suffering and death of innocents make us ask ourselves the question: why
does God allow this?
Because He gave mankind the inalienable gift of
freedom. Each person comes into being with free will and choice. This
gift is the basis of our ability to love, because it is the fruit of
freedom. At the same time, our freedom and the right to choose also mean a
person's ability to choose evil and hatred instead of love and good.
Evil and its consequences are not God's choice,
but man's choice. All the evil and suffering we see is the result of
someone using the divine gift of freedom for a selfish, unrighteous
purpose. Evil does not arise by itself - it has creators and perpetrators
who subordinated their freedom to the creation of this evil.
God does not create evil, it does not originate
from Him, but God does everything to stop this evil, so that it is defeated and
justly condemned. And that is why the Son of God, although He is Almighty,
voluntarily limited and humbled Himself, endured exile, persecution, suffering,
torment and accepted death - in order to defeat evil at its very root and open
the way to salvation and eternal life for all good, all innocent from harm to
the victims.
Because our God is patient, but also
just. He prematurely suffers the sins of people, giving them the
opportunity to repent and make amends. But He also punishes the lawless and
condemns evil, and no one will escape His righteous judgment.
The children killed by Herod's order in
Bethlehem and the surrounding area died innocently, but as martyrs they
received heavenly crowns and eternal blissful existence in heavenly
homes. And Herod and his servants inherited condemnation along with the
devil. The proud king is thrown from the throne to the hell of fire, and
the innocent children receive a blessed place near the Throne of the Most High
God.
The Son of God, together with His earthly
parents, endures unjust exile, becomes a refugee and finds protection in a
foreign land. But with this, He shows an example of great humility, which
defeats evil. This victory does not happen immediately, not in one moment,
the crossroad of suffering leads to this victory. But the end of the path
of humility, patience and sacrifice is always the victory of good.
Today, we are reminded of these two lessons by
the word of the Gospel about the escape to Egypt of the Savior's earthly
parents with the Infant God and about Herod's killing of the children in
Bethlehem. Evil can have temporary success and at times good may seem to
retreat before its onslaught. But in reality, evil is always doomed to
defeat and condemnation, and good wins.
Therefore, we too, dear brothers and sisters,
being in these difficult circumstances of the war, will not lose heart and
despair, but let the example of the victorious humility of the Son of God
inspire us. No matter how long the temporary triumph of evil lasts, the
sword of God's justice will punish it. Every unrepentant criminal, like
Herod of old, will be judged. And everyone who suffered innocent suffering
will receive a reward from the Righteous Judge, who himself suffered unjustly.
08/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpts of Speech before liturgy in the
Pechersk Lavra
There are no truly worthy and complete words
with which we can now express our gratitude to the Almighty God for His great
mercy to us, manifested in the fact that today in this House of the Most Holy
Theotokos, in the cathedral church of Pechersk Lavra, we solemnly glorified the
Nativity of our Savior, the Lord, with a divine liturgy Jesus Christ. More
than two decades ago, this shrine was restored from the ruins as a gift to the
Ukrainian people for the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, and today
we are celebrating the second birth of both this cathedral and our Pechersk
Lavra itself. Because the artificial spirit of the unholy teaching of the
"Russian world" is leaving them, and the spirit of true spiritual
service to the holy Orthodoxy and the Ukrainian people is returning.
(…)
The fact
that this joyful day has come, that the Pechersk Lavra is taking confident
steps to serve again, as in the old days, to preach the peace of God, not
the "Russian Peace", to be a true house of prayer, to serve the
Ukrainian people as an example of piety, piety and good deeds - we owe it to
the broad public support. We thank all of you, dear brothers and
sisters, all who dreamed of Ukrainian prayer in this holy place, of its
liberation from the captivity of the "Russian world". Your
prayers and your civic position supported our state in a difficult but quite
right decision. Gradually, peacefully, but irreversibly, we will all work
together to ensure that the name of the Lavra is no longer disgraced among
the outsiders because of the seductive behavior of those who have forgotten
about the vocation to be humble workers in the vineyard of God, and not
arrogant boyars in the midst of their alleged fiefdom.
Today,
on this solemn day of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, when four years ago
the Tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was first publicly
presented in Kyiv, I want to remind that the affiliation of the Orthodox
faithful in our country, Orthodox communities and monasteries to it is their
canonical duty. Therefore, just as then, so now we call: the doors of
our Church are open, we want to achieve the unity of all Orthodox around the
Kyivan Throne, around the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine - one of the
equivalent and equal autocephalous Sister Churches of Ecumenical Orthodoxy,
which on the Ukrainian land carries out its service to the native people
without any external control, interference or coercion.
As the
Holy Archimandrite of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, I appeal to the brethren of
the monastery: it is time to finally free yourself from the non-canonical rule
of Moscow and its servants, to follow the Tomos, to begin a new page of the
life of the monastery as a truly monastic monastery dedicated to the service of
the one Church of Christ and its neighbors - the Ukrainian people. Let
all the good that makes up the true millennial tradition of the Pechersk
Monastery continue its existence and flourish, multiplying the saving fruits.
And everything else that needs purification - let it be purified with the help
of God and our joint efforts.
Undoubtedly,
we owe this joyful event to the courage of the Ukrainian army, our newest
heroes. All those who are now on the battlefield resisting the invasion
of foreigners and those who gave their lives for Ukraine in this struggle.
Today, we offered our prayers for them, we asked for the approach of victory
and the establishment of a just peace for Ukraine. And we have a sincere hope
and will work to ensure that such a true and heartfelt prayer for Ukraine, for
the President and the state authorities, for the army and for the entire
Ukrainian people will be said here every day.
We are
grateful to the Head of State Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leadership of the
government and in particular the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr
Tkachenko, the National Reserve, as well as the relevant State Service for
their assistance in satisfying our request and making the dream of millions of
Ukrainians come true. Countering the destructive and heretical ideology of
the "Russian world", which is the cornerstone of justification of
Russian aggression against Ukraine, is our common cause. By joining efforts, we
will be able to protect our people from the Kremlin's hybrid aggression on the
spiritual front fruitfully and victoriously, as it is happening on other fronts
of the struggle - military, diplomatic, informational, economic.
07/01/2023
(Source)
Christmas meeting with soldiers
Today we ask that the next year be the year of
victory and expulsion of the aggressor. So, on the eve of Christmas, I want to
congratulate you - the soldiers - the newest heroes, and in your person all our
defenders. We all long for peace, but a just peace that will come after our
victory.
06/01/2023 (Source)
Meeting with medical sector and volunteers
The enemy seeks to act as much as possible in
the spiritual sphere, which is almost the only one that has remained under his
influence until now. Therefore, the murderous ideology of the ‘Russian world’,
sometimes veiled and hybrid, and sometimes quite openly, still continues to be
promoted. This is unacceptable during a bloody war for our God-given land,
freedom and independence. And this is by no means a question of freedom of
religion or the free opportunity to pray, because, as we see, no one forbids
this. It is a matter of national security, common sense in the face of deadly
challenges, and a matter of truth and justice. Because the Lord is always on
the side of truth, and not on the side of Pharisaic manipulations.
4/1/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from sermon
We sincerely thank God for helping our
Motherland Ukraine withstand the onslaught of the evil empire, giving strength
and courage to defeat the enemy on the battlefield, and inspiring millions of hearts with the
spirit of self-sacrificing love, support, and charity. And about the coming
year, we ask in prayer that it becomes a year of victory over the aggressor and
the establishment of a just peace for Ukraine and the world.
01/01/2023 (Source)
Excerpt from Christmas message
All these considerations especially echo in our
hearts at the time of the most difficult trials of the war, which the Ukrainian
people are going through. We did not want this war, as a people we sought to
live peacefully, having understanding with all our neighbors, but the enemy
cunningly and treacherously broke the peace and attacked our land, shedding
blood, sowing death, wanting to destroy our statehood and our very Ukrainian
identity.
More than three decades ago, we broke free from
centuries-old slavery, threw off the yoke, became independent, and started
building our own sovereign state. Those who held us captive could not tolerate
our achievements and our success. Devilish malice and envy prompted them to
start a war, but in it they will definitely be defeated, because the truth is
on our side. And where the truth is, there is God, and with God we will win.
With God's help, our people have already achieved many victories, destroying
the plans of the Kremlin tyrant to quickly conquer us. We have already achieved
a moral victory, because all people of good will condemn the acts of genocide,
terror and numerous war crimes committed by the evil Russian empire on our
land.
And now, on these festive days, we ask the Lord
with a special feeling to help us overcome the opponents who brought grief to
our home, to help finally expel the foreign invasion from Ukrainian land and,
thanks to the victory of truth, to establish a just and lasting peace.
Celebrating the Christmas of Christ, we
strengthen our conviction that it will be so, but at the same time we remember
those who defend the truth and freedom - our soldiers, who are now defending us
from Russian aggression. The warmest prayers and most heartfelt wishes are
heard today for our newest heroes.
Let us also remember our brothers and sisters
who are forced to celebrate holidays in captivity, on temporarily occupied
Ukrainian lands.
Let's remember our military and civilian prisoners and other unjustly
imprisoned and ask the Lord for their protection and speedy release.
Let's remember in prayer all forced migrants
and refugees. May God's mercy and help be with you, because Christ Himself was
a fugitive and hid from Herod's malice in a foreign land.
Let's remember with a grateful prayer
volunteers, donors and all people of good will who help the needy during the
severe trials of war. May the Lord bless all your good deeds with success and
reward you a hundredfold.
I congratulate the President, the government,
the Parliament of Ukraine, the leaders of local communities and all those who
are called to work for the benefit of the Ukrainian people and serve them with
a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the Lord inspire you with wisdom
and help you in the fight against the enemy!
"The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not covered it" (John 1:5), the Gospel tells us. Christ was
born - and brought this invincible light that chases away the darkness of evil.
Despite all the difficult current trials, the
joy of Christmas fills our hearts, driving away sorrow, pain and sorrow, and
let the light of the Star of Bethlehem direct us all to the Son of God, with
whom we are able to defeat all evil.
I heartily congratulate the fullness of our
local Orthodox Church and the entire Ukrainian people!
CHRIST WAS BORN! PRAISE HIM!
29/12/2022
(Source)
Words
during visit to Bucha
The
difficult year of the war for the will of the Ukrainian state is coming to an
end. The enemy is trying to destroy us, but we are invincible. And we must continue
to be like that in order to live in freedom and build our Church. Because if we
stop defending ourselves, then there will be no Ukraine, and if the Russian
invaders are forced to stop the attack, then the war will end. Therefore,
today we prayed that the Lord would bring the time of our just victory closer,
as well as rest the souls of the fallen defenders of the Motherland and the
tortured civilians who are buried near this temple,
28/12/2022
(Source)
Address
to mayor of Lviv
In fact, this is a war that has been going on for several centuries, and despite the high price paid by our defenders with their lives, we have no right to give up. Because if we do, we will pay a hundredfold, the enemy