Patriarch Kirill: If Love is There, Christ is There! If There’s No Love, There’s No Christ!

___________________________________

There’s unity where there’s love; where there’s love, God is there. If someone comes up with an idea to say something about our doctrine that diverges from the tradition of the Holy Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils, then, thinking people should ask, “For what, in the name of what purpose, do they offer a particular innovation?” If from the mouth of a man we hear invective, sometimes, we even hear dirt that afflicts the Church and its ministers, if we hear fervent appeals to struggle, for separation, to save Orthodoxy even at the cost of one’s death, when we hear them exclaim and shout, “Orthodoxy or death”… you need to be wary of these preachers.

Never did the Lord say, “My teaching or death”. None of the Apostles said, “Orthodoxy or Death”. Because Orthodoxy is life eternal, it’s joy in the Holy Spirit, it’s the joy of life, but death is decay that came because of the Fall and the devil’s action. Now, we see, from time to time, false teachers who seduce people by calling to save Christianity, to save its purity, who repeat this dangerous, sinful, and self-contradictory slogan “Orthodoxy or death”. In the eyes of these people, you won’t find love; there burns a fire of demonic pride, a desire for power, which destroys the Church’s unity. Of course, they put on a good show, they hide behind pious visages, and they enjoy adulation from a certain set of people.

What we say against heresies, is true of any other division. Sometimes, in our parishes, there are divisions amongst the clergy and believers. Often, these divisions are associated with a struggle for superiority, for a certain power in the parish. We know how sometimes congregations divide, clustering around one or another priest. The veneration of a shepherd and adulation for him… so-called division in the name of love… is sinful, because there can’t be separation where love exists.

We must keep the unity of Universal Orthodoxy not only free from any heresies and schisms, we must keep the unity of our Local Church as our foremost care, as the suffering of the Martyrs of the Church gave us the gift of being one and indivisible. We must maintain the unity of our parishes and monasteries, bearing in mind that the most important criterion for evaluation of any Christian… from the Patriarch to the simplest believer… is love. If Love is there, Christ is there! If there’s no love, there’s no Christ!

Yes, may the Lord help all of us to keep the unity of our Church, to keep it as our foremost care, taking heed of chilling and dangerous examples from the past, but at the same time being inspired by the podvigs* of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, who protected and maintained the unity of the Church of Christ, asserting that Church life is based only on the tangible Law of God… only the law of love saves.

• Podvig: Should NEVER be “Englished”… one of the most powerful words in the Russian language. There are literally no English equivalents strong enough. Podvig has overtones of “epic”, “heroic”, “bravery”, “self-sacrifice”, “victory”, “effort”, and “triumph”. It’s best to leave it as is, and admit that English lacks the necessary material to give meaning to this word.

Sunday of Orthodoxy 2009

His Holiness Kirill Gundyaev

Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias

8 March 2009

Patriarchia.ru

MP official website

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/print/577278.html

Advertisement

19 April 2017. What’s Shakin’ at the Yekaterinburg Zoopark? Two New Lion Cubs, That’s What!

____________________________________

Two cubs were born to Erni and Emma, an African lion couple, on 10 March 2017 at the Yekaterinburg Zoopark. They appear quite hale and healthy…

BMD

USAF F-22 Fighters Intercepted Russian Strategic Bombers in International Airspace near Alaska

____________________________________

On Wednesday, the Minoborony Rossii reported that USAF F-22 fighters intercepted Tu-95MS strategic bombers on a patrol mission in international airspace near Alaska:

On 17 April 2017, two Tu-95MS strategic bombers from the Ukrainka airbase (in the Far Eastern Amur Oblast) successfully performed tasks under the air patrol schedule. The route of the flight ran above neutral waters in the Pacific Ocean, along the Aleutian Islands. The aircraft covered about 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) at a speed of up to 850 kph (528 mph) and at a height of up to 10,000 metres (32,809 feet). The flight lasted more than seven hours. USAF F-22 fighters accompanied the Tu-95MS bombers for 27 minutes. Long-Range Aviation regularly carries out patrol missions above neutral waters in the Arctic, the Atlantic, the Black Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. It carries out all such missions in strict compliance with international regulations and with respect to national borders.

Earlier, Pentagon spokesman Michelle Baldanza told TASS that the USAF scrambled two F-22 fighters on Tuesday to intercept Russian bombers near the coast of Alaska. Citing unnamed US defence officials, Fox News reported that the USAF scrambled two F-22 fighters and an E-3 airborne early warning plane to intercept the Russian aircraft, which flew roughly 280 miles (450 kilometres) southwest of Elmendorf Air Force Base, within the USA’s Air Defence Identification Zone. Fox stated that the last spotting of Russian bombers near the US borders was on 4 July 2015, off the coasts of Alaska and California, coming as close as 40 miles (65 kilometres) to Mendocino in California.

19 April 2017

TASS

http://tass.com/defense/941993

Editor:

As the Tu-95s were in international airspace, they had every right to be there. This was a subtle warning from the “polite people” to the “exceptional Americans”… “We’re not pushovers and we’re not going to kowtow to you, either”. One wonders if Trump got the message…

BMD

19 April 2017. To Ensure the Future, We Must Respect the Past

******

____________________________________

Some people such as Victor Potapov want to “revise” the past, to “erase” people and events that they find distasteful. This is utterly wrong, crackbrained, and ludicrous in the extreme. We must keep covenant with all our past… with the Imperial legacy… with the Soviet legacy… we must keep covenant with both, or we create a monstrous golem, a Frankenstein of our own creation. Some people like Potapov are from families that were “somebodies” in Tsarist Russia, who were better off than most. So, the Soviet history and legacy are anathema to them because their families lost their “golden teat”. One can tell the measure of their character by seeing that they didn’t scruple at aiding the enemies of the Rodina in hopes of restoring their fortunes.

The people to follow are Tsar Nikolai and President Lukashenko, who say the same thing in essence. “Keep faith with ALL of our past. Honour everything that was good… reflect on everything that was bad”. That’s more healthy than the anti-Stalin rants of Potapov (and those like him). Keep it focused… the anti-communist warriors will be out in force this year. Meet them head-on and don’t fear… after all, our Holy Patriarch offered sincere condolences to the Castro family on the occasion of Fidel Castro’s death. He showed much more humanity and Christian love than did the loudmouth “conservatives” who criticised him for doing such. Our Church isn’t rightwing…

BMD