Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias (1946- ), after the vigil in Lipetsk on 25 August 2010
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Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias urged the clergy not to spare themselves in order to protect people from all sorts of threats. “The Church is called upon to protect its flock. However, it’s a special vocation, it’s not a battle in an open and fair match, it’s fought on an invisible battlefield, it’s a fight in and for the human mind. Pastors shouldn’t spare themselves in this struggle, they must defend their people”, His Holiness said on Wednesday evening during a vigil at the Nativity Cathedral in Lipetsk, according to our Interfax-Religion correspondent. In his opinion, in order to protect people from “the acts and thoughts that invisible foes implant in the soul”, [the clergy] must encourage “other thoughts, call for different actions, and give them other images from the moral and patriotic traditions of our people, to excite their love for their land and holy places.
Patriarch Kirill pointed up that his visit to Lipetsk coincides with the 400th anniversary of the Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery in Zadonsk (located near Lipetsk), a locale associated with St Tikhon of Zadonsk. “His example, although he lived in the 18th century, has tremendous appeal for us, as people living in the 21st century. This is especially true for pastors”, Vladyki Kirill said. He noted that, throughout the history of the Church, one can see numerous examples of “genuine pastoral ministry, when pastors gave their lives for the people”, many of them becoming martyrs and confessors. However, in hardhearted godless times, in years of comparative prosperity, “there were lazy pastors who refused to protect their flocks from the ‘wolf’; instead, they sought to plunder their ‘sheep’”.
The Patriarch observed that, today, the Orthodox Church in Russia faces no external threat, it operates in a free country, there’s a “renaissance amongst our people”, but, at the same time, it would be “a great mistake to say that there aren’t ‘wolves’ who want to steal the flock. Today, from time to time, we see false teachers, who, under the guise of protecting the Church and Orthodox believers, sow seeds of doubt in an attempt to divide our flock and its pastors”, adding, “there are other wolves that try to affect public opinion through the media… they create false and dangerous goals and values, and attract spiritually inexperienced people to these ideas, especially young people. We need to call for action, we must fortify our determination, shape our national character, and be able to defend both ourselves and our loved ones, to defend the Motherland”, His Holiness emphasised.
26 August 2010
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=37095
Editor’s Note:
Did you see what I saw? “There are other wolves that try to affect public opinion through the media… they create false and dangerous goals and values, and attract spiritually inexperienced people to these ideas”. That’s the PERFECT description of Pat Robertson, Sarah Palin, Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck! We must stop the hatred that they spew… all people of good will, whether we are of the “left” or of the “right”, must do so.
Remember what the Ghost of Christmas Present said, “This boy is Ignorance, and this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all, beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased”. Scrooge asked if the children had no refuge or resource, to which the Ghost replied, “Are there no prisons, no workhouses?” That’s what the Tea Party wants… unlike Scrooge, they’re not filled with self-loathing at the Ghost’s reply.
Scary, isn’t it?
BMD
