Patriarch of Moscow says, connect your Christianity to your daily life, agenda, business and politics."
The Patriarch of Moscow, says, "if we learn to connect our religious beliefs to our daily life, to our agenda, and supply those beliefs as a priority, we will be very strong indeed - at the personal, family, and state level." In America there is a growing drumbeat to shut Orthodox commentators and teaching who are "working in the culture" to teach the principles and theology that are virtually lost in the fallen western civilization. And this drumbeat is coming from "so-called" Orthodox people. Those people need to listen to learn history and listen the Patriarch.
Head of the Russian Church Urges Christians to 'Go Against the Mainstream' Sins of Modern Life & Liberalism
Editor's Note: This article was generated by machine translation, so our staff cautions the reader about possible inaccuracies that may have resulted from this. However, it was deemed worthwhile to still publish such a piece because of the intrinsic value of the message - which remains evident even in its translated form.
On the 100th anniversary of the "Petrograd Trials," the victims of which were Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd and several others, Patriarch Kirill called for an example of these men, who did not betray their faith and Christian principles even in the face of death.
Last Saturday, the Great Hall of the Philharmonic Society in St. Petersburg hosted an evening in memory of Metropolitan Benjamin, Archimandrite Sergius (Shein), and martyrs John Kovsharov and Yuri Novitsky, who were shot following the "Petrograd Trials" in 1922.
"It is in this hall, whose walls remember Metropolitan Benjamin and the martyrs who suffered with him, remember the lawless farce in the form of the trial and the terrible death sentence, that I would like to call upon all of us to actualize this historical picture as much as possible. In the sense of asking the question: in the present circumstances, where am I? Am I capable of going against the mainstream, as they say now, especially if this current draws one to sin, to temptation?" - said the patriarch, opening the evening.
According to him, "when sin is dressed up in beautiful clothes, when there is mass popularization of sin through cinema, through literature, it makes people go crazy, and when it happens, then everything cracks - family life and moral principles in general, and the person himself becomes very weak and susceptible to external influences.
The Patriarch believes that all Orthodox Christians of the twenty-first century, not forgetting the exploits of their predecessors, should try to imitate them to the best of their ability - "the great sons and daughters of the Russian Church.
The Primate noted that today no one tortures or forces Christians in Russia to renounce, "but we observe this relaxation of modern life, this pluralism of opinions, this lack of moral standards."
"Modern liberalism preaches that the highest value is freedom; what you choose is the value. And after all, a huge number of people live by this law, especially in Western countries, and many say: they live well there - maybe we should live like that too? So let us always, when making any conclusions, think about the most important thing! And that is our faithfulness to the Lord Christ, our willingness to live according to God's law, our readiness to profess our faith, and not only on a personal level, but also on other levels. Politicians, businessmen, scientists - in the fields in which they work," the patriarch said.
In his view, "if we learn to connect our religious beliefs to our daily life, to our agenda, and supply those beliefs as a priority, we will be very strong indeed - at the personal, family, and state level."
Source: interfax-religion.ru (Russian)
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