Patriarch Kirill: Russia is passing through crucial tests
Russia is passing through momentous trials and the Church prays that the Lord will protect the borders of the Fatherland, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in a sermon in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, RIA Novosti correspondent reports.
On Sunday night, Patriarch Kirill held an Easter service in the capital’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
“We pray today especially for our Russian country, which is going through difficult, maybe in some sense fateful trials. We ask the Lord to protect the sacred limits of our land,” Patriarch Kirill noted.
He called for prayers for the authorities and the army, for “those who today lose their health and lives defending the Fatherland.”
“May the Lord stop the internecine warfare, may he strengthen in good health and preserve from all evil and hostility those who today serve our Fatherland and all of us. And through these trials – may he strengthen our faith in the Lord, our hope in him and the power of our prayer… Christ is Risen!” – concluded the Primate of the Russian Church.
“But after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the coffin. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord, who came down from heaven, came and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb and sat on it… And the angel turned his speech to the women and said, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus crucified; He is not here – He is risen, as He said,'” the Gospel of Matthew tells about the events of the Resurrection of Christ.
Thus, according to Orthodox Christianity, with the Resurrection of Christ, death is defeated, and the prospect of eternal life is opened to people. On the eve in the churches remembered the descent of Christ into hell. As Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia noted in one of his sermons, the Saviour “freed us all from slavery to the devil”, because “regardless of how a person lived in the Old Testament, even a righteous and holy man could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, But the Lord through his suffering, death on the cross and Resurrection freed all those who languished, being righteous, in the arms of hell, and for all of us the Lord opened the doors of paradise, the doors of eternal life”. Patriarch Kirill traditionally performs a festive service on Easter night in the capital’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
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