Moscow, January 9, 2015
“Today we are commemorating, humanly speaking, the family of the Savior, the family of the Mother of God,” reminded His Holiness Patriarch Kirill in his sermon after the Divine Liturgy on the feast of Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos at the Moscow Kremlin’s Dormition Cathedral.
“By this remembrance the Church is stressing the meaning of a family and family relations, the significance of birth of children, importance of consolidation of relatives, especially in the face of difficulties and dangers. It is so important to support each other, to share with each other, first of all with our family members! Since love often disappears when we stop sharing the things what we are having and experiencing with others. Then we become estranged from our relatives and the family ties are torn apart,” stressed head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
“That is why today we are particularly praying for families, for our families, so that babies might be born in them, so that mass killing of children in their mothers’ wombs might be halted; so that the birth of each new child might be a great happiness for a family and a reason for uniting more closely and feeling each other’s importance. Today we are also praying for our children who are to walk the unknown paths ahead throughout the 21st century. It is hard to imagine what is going to happen in that age but they must retain through the century the Orthodox faith, faithfulness to Christ and to His Divine law into that distant future.
That is why the Church is offering up special prayers for relatives and children, for our families. We hope that the Lord through our feeble prayers will show His mercy on relatives and children alike, helping them, among other things, apprehend the great wisdom which is passed on to us by the Holy Scriptures, cherished by the Church,” the patriarch noted.
