Russia stronger than West because it has more perfect weapon, prayer - Patriarch Kirill

Source: Interfax-Religion

Moscow, May 23, 2016

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes Russia is reviving spiritually as prospering countries degrade.

"We know that the strongest, prospering countries are now removing faith from their lives for money and power. That doesn't mean that faith is leaving people's lives in these countries, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to practice their faith there," the patriarch said after a liturgy in the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery in the Moscow Region.

The patriarch said that some people believe they have no need to believe in God "if you have a big bank account, if the whole world lies at your feet, if you can do whatever you like," "if you have power, if you have armed forces that can conquer the whole world."

"We, our people, Holy Russia, having passed through the difficult stages of full denial of God's existence and any presence of God in people's lives, have now turned to God and what we see is wonderful. We see big changes, including in our young people's consciousnesses," the patriarch said.

He believes no generation of young people was subjected to "such temptations, such attempts to distort moral nature as this generation, and therefore it's God's miracle that more and more people link their lives to God, hope for Him, form ways and methods of resisting diabolical temptations and build their lives according to God's law."

"It's a manifestation of God's mightiness, and when people who hope in human power take our hope for God with a condescending and ironic smile, we respond to them with prayer for the whole world, not with irony or malice, understanding that prayer is stronger than money, stronger than power, stronger than weapons," the patriarch said.