Moscow, January 2, 2016
In his speech before the prayer service on the eve of the secular New Year, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill addressed the faithful and particularly stressed the relationship between the deeds and actions of any individual person and the will of God.
“The future is concealed from us,” the patriarch said, “but in order to understand our possible ways in the future we should keep in mind the following things. If our deeds are good and pure, if there is no insidiousness and ambiguity in them, if we do not mislead anyone, proclaiming one goal but in reality pursuing other goals, then indeed we may hope that the Lord will help us in our undertakings. Thus, if we want our life to be a truly peaceful, quiet, happy and successful one, then we must try to perform only such good deeds in our life (private, family, state or public life), so that we may deceive neither God (and it is impossible to deceive God) nor our neighbors.
“And, in this sense, we determine our destiny ourselves; because, if we do the God’s will, then He will be with us.
“Our nation’s historical experience, with its ups and downs, joys, sorrows and even tragedies, illustrates this idea very clearly. With God we can go forward and be full of hope that He will not abandon us in His mercy,” the primate of ROC said in conclusion.