Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias urged all VOV vets to say it loud that they saved the world from fascism. On Thursday, in Lugansk, the Patriarch addressed veterans after laying flowers at the Memorial of Glory and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He said, “This incomparable feat (Подвиг) is the underpinning of our nation. We must shout it out to the world that we not only saved our country, we saved the whole world. When indifference, disbelief, and, sometimes, even attempts to desecrate the memory of our heroes confront us, when lies cover over the truth about the war, when heroism allegedly led to irredeemably bad results for the people… all of this requires a response”.
His Holiness also said that some people say to veterans, “’You’re liars’. Fortunately, no one raises a hand to veterans, although, in some places, some belittle the heroes of the war. However, that doesn’t mean that you have to shut up. You must tell the truth about the war, about the great feats (подвиге) of our people. Don’t give up the fight; go forward in the attack just as you did in the Great Patriotic War, speak the word of truth, teach our young people, because your witness is truly the word of truth before God and before mankind”.
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The Russian Market: Satan Reigns There
Vasili Ostrovsky
2004
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Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias said that you couldn’t have prosperity in the Ukraine until it returns to the spiritual roots of Kievan Rus. “If the Ukraine wishes to be great, it has to unite around the fundamental values that sustained all of Holy Rus, which includes the Ukraine, from Vladimir’s baptism right up to today”, the Patriarch said after serving liturgy on Thursday in Theatre Square in Lugansk. He pointed up the importance of “overcoming the schism in the Church so that the Ukrainian Orthodox people could gather around one chalice”. His Holiness noted that he prays for the prosperity of Ukraine, its authorities, as well as for the First Hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church/MP, Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan, who was unable to be in Lugansk due to ill-health.
Patriarch Kirill said that developed and industrialised areas, along with healthy rural districts, “that allow people to see that work is rewarding, doubtlessly, will become regions of prosperity and material well-being”. In this respect, His Holiness indicated that Lugansk Oblast was an example for other areas in the post-Soviet space. He emphasised, “To create real wealth requires real work, which is something that we are all very well understand; now, we suffer economic and financial crises because we’ve forgotten simple truths, such as, “He who won’t work, then, don’t let them eat” {this is a slam at lazy rentiers and grasping oligarchs, not a criticism of “social welfare”: editor} he stressed. For his part, the governor of Lugansk Oblast, who attended the services, said that the patriarch’s words were “a guide to the path that we should walk together, hand in hand, so that we might progress, in order to do good for ourselves and our posterity”.
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Mother of God “of Tenderness”
Unknown Artist
1485
Lemko
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Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias expressed concern at how widespread divorces was, and shared his views on how we should reduce its occurrence. “There’s a large percentage of divorces in our country, but people who marry for a second time aren’t inoculated against the same kind of troubles they had in their first go-round”, the Patriarch said on Thursday, speaking to ten newlywed couples at the monument in honour of the 2,000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ in Lugansk. In his view, when the husband and wife have “mutual care for one another, that’s love. If you’ll embody such care throughout your life, you won’t divorce, you’ll be happy”. He emphasised, “If you’re not capable of sacrifice, you’re not capable of love, no matter how many marriages you undertake, even ten of them”.
His Holiness urged the newlyweds to remember that when temptations assail them, “including carnal temptations, it really has nothing to do with human happiness; it’s nothing but sudden impulses leading to fleeting pleasures. Base your family relationships on eternal values; be sure to keep faith in your hearts. when you run into tough moments in your personal life, pray for yourself and your spouse, that the Lord shall send His mercy upon you, that He might be with you, to celebrate your joys, to share your sorrows”. Then, he then blessed each couple and presented them with icons of the Saviour and the Mother of God, along with prayer books and a Gospel. Earlier in the day, Patriarch Kirill consecrated the cornerstone of a church dedicated to the Mother of God “of Tenderness” on the property of the Children’s Clinical Hospital.
15 September 2011
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42243
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42244
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42245
Editor’s Note:
Note well how His Holiness praises the Great Victory and the VOV vets. He uses a VERY strong Russian word, podvig, not geroizm. I really can’t translate for you the overwhelming impact that this word has for a Russian-speaker, especially in verbal discourse. It’s one of the most powerful words in the Russian language, there’s no equivalent in English for such self-sacrificial courage in battle or in prayer. There IS a Greek equivalent, though… that tells you that the Eurasian peoples have a mental universe different from that of the heterodox West. Yes… Greeks are Eurasian, too… don’t forget, Constantinopolis Nea Romana, the most powerful city in the Roman world (Roman Law came from there, not Old Rome), sat on the actual boundary between Europe and Asia… the Greek community in Asia Minor numbered in the millions until the Catastrophe of Smyrna and the Great Exchange of Populations in the 1920s (many Greek-American families are of Asia Minor provenance).
The Church honours the podvig of the heroes of the VOV… full stop. The Church condemns the collaborators and their works… that’s why I won’t have anything to do officially with Agafangel’s bunch… they’re chock full of Vlasovtsy and their descendents. Don’t hate the rank n’ filers, though… they were led astray by unrepentant rightwingers… sad, isn’t it?
KMG’s an unabashed Socialist… his words have a simple meaning. Work creates wealth… not money. If you want money… well, then, work for it! Unfortunately, the Neoliberal Free Market system is as dysfunctional and perverted in economic terms as paedophilia is in sexual terms… and His Holiness has called it a fraud explicitly, more than once. You can have Christianity or you can have Laissez-Faire Libertarian Nihilism… not both. Do choose well…
BMD
