Orthodox Christmas: Patriarch Kirill, “pain has not left the world”. “Finding the hope that defeats fear”

“When all thoughts revolve around our ‘self’, when in our hearts there’s no place for our neighbours, then not even the Lord can have a place there. Having our neighbours in our hearts depends above all on our ability to share other people’s pain, to respond to it with actual charitable efforts”. This was written by the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, in the message he sent to the members of the episcopacy, the clergy, the monks and nuns, and all devotees, for the Christmas that the Orthodox Churches celebrated yesterday, January 7^th. “The year just passed for the life of our people has been full of memories of the tragic events of the XX century and of persecution for faith”, the Patriarch writes. Even “at such a terrible time”, “the Lord did not fail to show us His mercy”. “A special time” is the current one too, because “pain has not left the world”; yet so much of “God’s love is poured onto mankind” and “peace does exist, despite the forces of evil”. Confident, Kirill says he is, that, “by facing the trials of the present, the peoples of the ancient Rus’ will keep and will renew their spiritual unity and will experience wellbeing and prosperity”. In conclusion, he wished to “our people, the peoples of the ancient Rus’ and all the peoples of the earth” that the “Divine Child” “may help us find the hope that defeats fear and feel faith with the force of God’s love that transfigures human life”.