Dietrich Bonhoeffer

PRAYERS FOR FELLOW PRISONERS. Christmas 1943

Morning prayer

God, I cry to You at dawn. Help me to pray and gather my thoughts towards You; I can't do this alone.

In me it is dark, but in You there is light; I am lonely, but You do not leave me; faint-hearted, but You have help; restless, but with You there is peace; I have bitterness, but You have patience; Your ways are incomprehensible to me, but You know the way for me.

Heavenly Father, praise and gratitude to You for the peace of the night, praise and gratitude to You for the new day, praise and gratitude to You for all Your kindness and faithfulness in my past life.

You have done a lot of good things for me, now give me the strength to accept a heavy burden from Your hand.

You will put on me no more than I can bear.

Everything with You serves for the benefit of Your children.

Lord Jesus Christ, You were poor and miserable, captured and abandoned, like me.

You know all the troubles of people, You will stay with me when everyone abandons me, You will not forget me and will find me, You want me to know You and turn to You.

Lord, I hear Your call and follow it, help me!

Holy Spirit, give me faith that will save me from despair, passions and vices, give me love for God and people, which will destroy all hatred and bitterness, give me hope that will save me from fear and cowardice.

Holy, merciful God, My Creator and Savior, My Judge and Deliverer, You know me and all my affairs.

You hate evil and punish it in this and this world, regardless of persons, You forgive the sins of those who sincerely ask for it, You love goodness and pay for it on this earth with a comforted conscience, and in the world to come with a crown of righteousness.

Before You, I think about all my loved ones, about my fellow prisoners and all those who perform their hard service in this monastery.

Have mercy, God!

Grant me freedom, and let me live in such a way that I can justify my life before You and before people.

My God, no matter what this day brings, glorified be Your name.

Evening prayer

Lord my God, I thank You that You have brought this day to an end; I thank You that You give peace to body and soul.

Your hand was over me, protecting and protecting me.

Forgive me all the lack of faith and all the wrongness of this day and help me forgive everyone from whom I suffered wrong.

Give me peaceful sleep under Your protection and protect me from the temptations of darkness.

I entrust to You my loved ones, this house, I entrust to You my body and soul.

My God, may your holy name be glorified.

One day tells another that my life is a journey to great eternity.

Oh eternity, you are beautiful, let my heart get used to you; my home is not from this time.

Prayer in great trouble

God, a great misfortune has befallen me. Worries choke me. I'm at a loss.

Have mercy, God, and help.

Give me strength to bear Your burden.

Don’t let fear take over me, take fatherly care of my loved ones, my wife and children.

Merciful God, forgive me all the sins I have committed before You and people. I trust in Your mercy and place my life in Your hands.

Do with me whatever You want and whatever is good for me.

In life or death, I am with You, and You are with me, my God.

Lord, I wait for Your Salvation and Your Kingdom.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Resistance and submission

Confidence

Almost everyone experiences betrayal firsthand. The figure of Judas, so incomprehensible before, is no longer alien to us. Yes, all the air we breathe is poisoned by mistrust, from which we just die. And if we break through the veil of mistrust, we will have the opportunity to gain the experience of trust, which we had never even suspected before. We are taught that we can safely entrust our head to someone we trust; Despite all the ambiguity that characterizes our lives and our affairs, we have learned to trust limitlessly. Now we know that only with such trust, which is always a risk, but a risk joyfully accepted, can we really live and work. We know that it is highly reprehensible to sow or encourage mistrust and that, on the contrary, trust should be maintained and strengthened wherever possible. Trust will always remain for us one of the greatest, rare and inspiring gifts that life among people brings with it, but it is always born only against the dark background of necessary distrust. We have learned not to surrender ourselves to the mercy of meanness in anything, but in hands worthy of trust, we surrender ourselves without a trace.

Sense of quality

If we do not have the courage to restore a genuine sense of distance between people and personally fight for it, we will perish in the chaos of human values. Impudence, the essence of which is ignoring all the distances that exist between people, characterizes the mob as well as internal uncertainty; Flirting with a boor, playing with the cattle leads to one’s own debasement. Where they no longer know who owes what to whom, where the sense of human quality and the power to keep a distance have faded, there is chaos at the doorstep. Where for the sake of material well-being we put up with the advancing rudeness, there we have already surrendered, there the dam has been broken, and in the place where we are placed, chaos is spilling in streams, and the blame for this falls on us. In other times, Christianity testified to the equality of people; today it is fully country It must advocate respect for distance between people and attention to quality. Suspicions of self-interest based on false rumors, cheap accusations of antisocial views - you need to be prepared for all this. These are the inevitable quibbles of the mob about order. Anyone who allows himself to relax, to confuse himself, does not understand what we are talking about, and probably even deserves this reproach in some way. We are now experiencing a process of general degradation of all social strata and at the same time we are present at the birth of a new, aristocratic position, uniting representatives of all still existing strata of society. Aristocracy arises and exists through sacrifice, courage and a clear sense of who owes what to whom, through the obvious demand for due respect for those who deserve it, and through the equally understandable respect of both superiors and inferiors. The main thing is to clear and release the experience of quality buried in the depths of the soul, the main thing is to restore order based on quality. Quality is the sworn enemy of massification. Socially, this means a renunciation of the pursuit of position in society, a break with any kind of cult of stars, an unbiased look both up and down (especially when choosing a narrow circle of friends), joy in private, intimatelife, but also a courageous acceptance of social life. From a cultural perspective, the experience of quality means a return from newspapers and radio to books, from haste to leisure and silence, from distraction to concentration, from sensation to reflection, from the ideal of virtuosity to art, from snobbery to modesty, from lack of feeling. measures - towards moderation. Quantitative properties argue with each other, qualitative properties complement each other.

Compassion

It must be borne in mind that most people only learn from their own experiences. This explains, firstly, the astonishing inability to take preventive action of any kind: they hope to avoid danger until it is too late; secondly, deafness to the suffering of others. Co-suffering arises and grows in proportion to the growing fear of the threatening proximity of misfortune. Much can be said to justify this position: from an ethical point of view, one does not want to tempt fate; a person draws inner conviction and strength to act only in a serious case that has become a reality; a person is not responsible for all the injustice and all the suffering in the world and does not want to take the position of a magistrate; from a psychological point of view, the lack of imagination, sensitivity, and internal mobilization is compensated by unshakable calm, tireless diligence and a developed ability to suffer. From a Christian point of view, however, all these arguments should not be misleading, because the main thing here is the lack of spiritual breadth. Christ avoided suffering until his hour struck; and then he voluntarily accepted them, mastered them and overcame them. Christ, as the Scripture says, knew with his flesh all human suffering as his own suffering (an incomprehensibly lofty thought!), He took it upon himself voluntarily, freely. We, of course, are far from Christ, we are not called to save the world by our own deeds and sufferings, we should not shoulder the burden of the impossible and suffer, realizing our inability to bear it, we are not the Lord, but instruments in the hand of the Lord of history and only to a very limited extent are able to truly empathize with the suffering of other people. We are far from Christ, but if we want to be Christians, then we must acquire a piece of the heartfelt breadth of Christ - by a responsible act, voluntarily exposing ourselves to danger at the right moment, and by genuine compassion, the source of which is not fear, but the liberating and saving love of Christ for to all those who suffer. Passive waiting and dull contemplation are not a Christian position. What calls a Christian to action and compassion is not so much his own bitter experience as the ordeal of the brothers for whom Christ suffered.

About suffering

It is immeasurably easier to suffer by obeying a human order than by committing an act, making a free choice, taking responsibility. It is incomparably easier to suffer in a group than alone. Honorable suffering in public view is infinitely easier than suffering in obscurity and shame. It is immeasurably easier to suffer physically than spiritually. Christ suffered, having made a free choice, alone, in obscurity and in shame, physically and spiritually, and since then millions of Christians have suffered with him.

Present and future

Until now, it seemed to us that the ability to plan one’s life, both professionally and personally, was an inalienable human right. It's finished. By force of circumstances, we are thrust into a situation in which we are forced to abandon concern for “tomorrow” (Mt 6:34), and it matters whether this is done from a free position of faith, as implied by the Sermon on the Mount, or as a forced slavish service to the current moment. For most people, being forced to give up planning for the future means an irresponsible, frivolous, or frustratedly indifferent surrender to the present moment; few people still dream passionately about better times in the future, trying to distract themselves from thinking about the present. Both positions are equally unacceptable to us. All that remains for us is a very narrow and sometimes barely discernible path - to accept every day as if it were the last, and yet not give up faith and responsibility, as if we still have a great future ahead of us. “Houses and fields and vineyards will be bought again in this land” (Jeremiah 15) - this is what Jeremiah seems to have prophesied (about a paradoxical contradiction with his jeremiads) on the eve of the destruction of the holy city; in the face of the complete absence of any future, this was a divine sign and a guarantee of a new, great future. To think and act without losing sight of the coming generation, while maintaining the readiness to leave this world without fear and worries any day, is a position that has been practically imposed on us, and it is not easy to stand bravely on it, but it is necessary.

Optimism

The smartest thing to do is to be a pessimist: disappointments are forgotten, and you can look people in the eyes without shame. Optimism is therefore not favored by reasonable people. Optimism in its essence is not a look beyond the current moment, it is vitality, the power of hope that does not dry up where others despair, the power not to hang one’s head when all efforts seem in vain, the power to endure the blows of fate, the power not to give up the future to the mercy of the enemy, but dispose of it yourself. Of course, one can also encounter stupid, cowardly optimism, which is unacceptable. But no one should look down on optimism - the will for the future, even if he is mistaken a hundred times; optimism is vital health, we must protect it from contagious diseases. There are people who do not take it seriously; there are Christians who do not consider it entirely pious to hope for a better earthly future and prepare for it. They believe that the meaning of modern events lies in chaos, disorder, and catastrophes, and therefore they shun (some in disappointment and indifference, some in pious flight from the world) responsibility for future life, for new construction, for future generations. It is quite possible that the Last Judgment will break out tomorrow, but only then will we willingly postpone our affairs until better times, not earlier.

Danger and death

The thought of death has become increasingly common in recent years. We ourselves are surprised at the calmness with which we perceive the news of the death of our peers. We can no longer hate death; we have seen something like goodness in its features and have almost come to terms with it. Basically we feel that we already belong to her and that every new day is a miracle. But it would, perhaps, be wrong to say that we die willingly (although everyone is familiar with a certain fatigue, which, however, under no circumstances should one succumb to), - for this we are apparently too curious, or, to put it more seriously: we would still like to know something more about the meaning of our chaotic life. We do not at all paint death in heroic tones; life is too significant and dear to us for that. And we especially refuse to see the meaning of life in danger; for this we are not yet desperate enough and are too familiar with the fear for life and with all the other destructive effects of a constant threat. We still love life, but I think that death will no longer be able to take us completely by surprise. The experience gained during the war years will hardly allow us to admit to ourselves a cherished desire for death to overtake us not by chance, not suddenly, away from the main thing, but in the midst of the fullness of life, at the moment of complete surrender of our strength. Not external circumstances, but we ourselves will make death what it can be - death by voluntary consent.

Are we still needed?

We have been mute witnesses to evil deeds, we have gone through thick and thin, we have studied the Aesopian language and mastered the art of pretending, our own experience has made us distrustful of people, and we have deprived them of the truth and free speech many times, we are broken by unbearable conflicts, and perhaps We just became cynics - are we still needed? We will need not geniuses, not cynics, not misanthropes, not refined schemers, but simple, artless, straightforward people. Whether we have enough internal strength to resist what is being imposed on us, whether we remain mercilessly frank about ourselves - that is what determines whether we will again find the path to simplicity and straightforwardness.

LETTERS about ANOTHER

I must take advantage of the fact that you are close and write to you. You know that I am not even able to meet with the pastor here... Let me tell you something that you should definitely know about me. In those first 12 days, when I was isolated here as... a criminal with an appropriate attitude towards me (in the neighboring cells to this day there are practically only shackled candidates for the next world), Paul Gerhardt and the psalms and the Apocalypse helped me in an unexpected way. These days I was delivered from serious temptations. You are the only one who knows that “acedia” - “tnstitia” with all its threatening consequences often haunted me, and maybe I was afraid of this, worried about me in this regard. But from the very beginning I told myself that I would not give this pleasure to either people or the devil; if they really want it, let them take care of it themselves; and I hope to continue to stand my ground.

At first I racked my brains over the question of whether that for the sake of which I am giving you so much trouble is really the work of Christ; but I quickly dismissed this question as a temptation and came to the conclusion that my task was precisely to withstand this borderline situation with all its problems; this made me very happy, and my joy continues to this day (1 Peter 2, 20; 3, 14).

Personally, I reproached myself for not finishing the Ethics (it was, apparently, partially confiscated), I was slightly consoled by the fact that I told you the most important thing, and even if you had already forgotten everything, then still in some indirect way it will show up. And besides, my ideas haven’t been fully thought through yet.

Further, I took it as an omission that I never fulfilled my old dream of going to Communion with you again one day... and yet I know that we, albeit not physically, but spiritually, have shared the gift of confession, resolution and communion, and I can rejoice in this regard and be calm. But I still wanted to say this.

While it was possible, I began, in addition to reading the Bible daily (I read the Old Testament two and a half times and learned a lot from this reading), to non-theological work. The article on “The Sense of Time” grew largely out of a need to recapture my own past in a situation where time could so easily be perceived as “empty” and “lost.”

Gratitude and repentance are the two feelings that constantly keep our past before our eyes. But I’ll say more about this later.

Then I started a daring undertaking that had been attracting me for a long time: I began to write the history of a bourgeois family of our time. All the endless conversations that we had in this direction, and everything I experienced serves as a background; in short, this should be a rehabilitation of the burghers, familiar to us from our families, and a rehabilitation from Christianity. The children of two close families in one small town are little by little entering the age of responsible tasks and responsibilities and together they are trying to promote the public good in the posts of burgomaster, teacher, pastor, doctor, engineer. You would find a lot of familiar signs, and you yourself were brought here. But I didn’t get very far beyond the beginning, primarily because of constant and false forecasts regarding my liberation and the associated internal lack of composure. But it gives me a lot of joy. It’s just that I miss talking to you every day on this topic, and even more than you think... In the meantime, I wrote an article “What does it mean to tell the truth?”, and at the moment I’m trying to compose prayers for prisoners who, like this Strangely enough, no one has written yet, and perhaps I will distribute them by Christmas.

And now about reading. Yes, E[berhard], I very much regret that we did not meet Stifter together. This would greatly enliven our conversations.

We'll have to save it for the future. I have a lot to tell you about this. In future? When and what will it be like? Just in case, I handed over my will to the lawyer... But perhaps (or even certainly) you are now in even greater danger! Every day I will think about you and pray to God to protect and bring you back... Is it possible, if I had not been convicted, released and called up, to arrange for me to end up in your regiment? It would be great! By the way, if I am convicted (which cannot be known in advance), don’t worry about me! This really won’t affect me much, except that I’ll have to sit out a few more months until the end of the “probationary period”, and this, frankly speaking, is not very pleasant. But many things cannot be called pleasant! In a case in which I could be found guilty, a mosquito won’t hurt my nose so much that I can only be proud. Otherwise, I hope that if God saves our lives, at least we can celebrate Easter together happily...

But let's promise to be faithful in praying for each other. I will pray for the granting of strength, health, patience and firmness to you in conflicts and temptations. Pray the same for me. And if we are not destined to see each other again, then let us remember each other until the last moment - thanking and forgiving, and may God grant us to appear before His Throne in prayer for each other, glorifying and thanking Him.

For me (as, I think, for you) the hardest thing internally for me is getting up in the morning (Jer 31:26!). Now I just pray for freedom. But there is also a false indifference that cannot be considered Christian. We, as Christians, can not be at all ashamed of a bit of impatience, melancholy, disgust in the face of the unnatural, a bit of thirst for freedom, earthly happiness and the opportunity to work. On this, I think you and I agree.

Otherwise, we are probably still the same, despite everything or precisely because of everything that we are each experiencing now in our own way, isn’t it? I hope you don’t think that I’ll leave here as a soldier of the “back ranks” - now this is even less true than ever! I think exactly the same about you. What a joyful day it will be when we can tell each other about our experiences! Still, sometimes I get so angry that I’m not free now! ...

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends

This is why the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I myself give it. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.(John 10:17-18) .

What amazing, what words unheard of by the world: He Himself gave His life for the salvation of the world. He said that no one took His life, but He Himself gave His life. You may be perplexed: didn’t the high priests, Pharisees and scribes, who obtained from Pilate to condemn Him to crucifixion, take His life, and He says: I myself gave my life, no one took it from me.

Remember what He said in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas the traitor came, when they wanted to arrest Him, when fiery Peter drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear; remember what He said then: Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will present to Me more than twelve legions of Angels?(Matt. 26:53) . He could do it: He Himself possessed Divine power. He could strike His enemies, terribly. But He didn't. He, like a sheep led to the slaughter, gave Himself into the hands of His enemies. He Himself, of His own will, gave His life for the salvation of the human race.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again.. After all, it came true: He took up His life again when He rose again on the third day. Well, don’t these amazing words have some relation to us Christians? Was it only Christ Himself who voluntarily gave His life, and only He who had the power to accept it? No, He gave this great power to us, people.

You know that there were many thousands of martyrs of Christ who, imitating Him, gave their lives for His holy name, voluntarily submitted to suffering, to such tortures as only the devilish brain of the enemies of Christ could imagine. They could have saved their lives, and yet they gave it. Just renounce Christ, make a sacrifice to idols - and you will receive everything; and they gave their lives. And what, didn’t they accept her later, like the Lord Jesus Himself? They accepted, they accepted: they all glorify God at the Throne of the Most High, they all rejoice with inexpressible and eternal joy. They, after giving their life, accepted it forever and ever, accepted it forever. You see: these words can also apply to us, people, to us, Christians.

But, you say, the times when they shed their blood for Christ are long gone. Now how can we give our lives for Christ?

First of all, the opinion that there were martyrs of Christ only in the first centuries of Christianity, when the Roman emperors initiated cruel persecution of Christians, is incorrect: it is incorrect, for in all subsequent times, and even in recent times, there were new martyrs. In the 16th century, three young men gave their lives for Him: the Vilna martyrs John, Anthony and Eustathius. There were martyrs who in the Middle Ages gave their lives for Christ, being cruelly killed by the Turks and Muslims because they refused to renounce their faith in Christ and accept Mohammedanism.

Martyrdom is possible at all times. But giving your life for Christ does not mean only shedding your blood as a martyr: there is for all of us that opportunity, which the great saints followed. There is an opportunity to give your life for your friends. The Lord laid down His soul for sinful humanity, and commanded us all to reach such a peak of love that we would lay down our souls for our friends. Laying down your soul does not mean only giving your life, as the martyrs gave. Laying down your life does not only mean dying for your neighbors; to lay down your soul means to renounce yourself, to renounce your aspirations for wealth, for pleasures, for honor and glory, to renounce everything that our flesh requires. This means setting the goal of your life to serve your neighbors. There were many saints who laid down their souls for their neighbors.

In the history of the Russian Church such an example is given in the person of St. Juliania of Murom. She lived during the reign of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, and was the daughter of a nobleman who served as a housekeeper at the court of Ivan the Terrible. She lived two miles from the church, she was not taught to read and write, she was rarely allowed to go to church, she lived in a tower. She lived a boring prison life and constantly prayed, lived and did works of mercy. In her early youth, at the age of 16, she was married to a noble nobleman. It seemed that she could enjoy wealth, a high position, could change, as people who find themselves in such a position often change for the worse. But she remained just as pious, completely devoted to works of mercy. She set herself the task of taking every possible care of the poor, beggars, and wretched. At night she spun, knitted, embroidered and sold her products to help the unfortunate.

It so happened that her husband was sent on state affairs to Astrakhan, and alone she served the poor and unfortunate even more diligently: she helped everyone, fed everyone. But then her husband died, she was left alone, and her wealth was shaken; she squandered her wealth on helping the poor. There was a famine in the area where she lived, a kind heart did not tolerate the sight of the hungry, a kind heart demanded that all those suffering receive help, and she sold her property: she gave everything away and divided herself, lost everything and remained poor.

A cruel pestilence, a widespread disease, terribly contagious, from which people died in the thousands, was raging in Rus'. In fear and horror, people locked themselves in their houses. What is St. doing? Juliana? Without any fear, she goes to where the unfortunate die, she serves them. She is not afraid of becoming infected and is ready to give her life, serving the unfortunate dying. The Lord preserved her, she continued to live in righteousness and peace, Saint Juliana died of her own death. Here is an example of how each of us can give our life in order to take it again.

Remember these words of Christ: “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” And everyone who follows Christ and voluntarily gives his life will be loved by the Heavenly Father. He will reward everyone who gave his life for his friends with eternal joy, unspeakable joy forever in His Kingdom.

Hurry to follow Christ. To the words: “Lay down your life for your friends.”

October 31

02:40 2013

The remains of seven Soviet soldiers were solemnly reburied in Vilnius. Priest Oleg Shlyakhtenko said a word of remembrance at the funeral service, in which he called for understanding and appreciating the feat of the soldiers who died for all of us.

On October 26, 2013, in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, at the Antakalnis Military Cemetery, a ceremonial reburial of the remains of seven Soviet soldiers took place. The remains of seven soldiers were discovered on July 10, 2011 in the area of ​​the now defunct village of Malinovo, Pabradskaya senyunia, Shvenchensky district. In a mass grave they found the remains of soldiers with traces of medical care - splints, prostheses, amputations. The names of six of the seven warriors were identified.

Actually, an important point in the activities of the Association of Military History “Forgotten Soldiers” (Uzmirsti kareiviai) is not only to find the remains of dead soldiers, but to establish the identities of the dead, and search for their relatives with further perpetuation of the memory of the fallen soldiers. The bones of fighters found during all expeditions are subsequently examined by experts. First of all, the public organization is looking for the remains of Soviet soldiers of the Second World War and Russian soldiers of the First World War, but the found remains of German soldiers are also treated with reverence, and they are buried in the cemetery of German soldiers in Vilnius Vingis Park.

For two years, the “Forgotten Soldiers” association negotiated with government agencies about the reburial of the remains of these soldiers, but the matter still did not move from a “dead point”, but, it would seem, at the most difficult moment (for a long time, right now, relations between Lithuania and Russia are at their most tense ), right now a miracle happened. The Lithuanian authorities agreed to the meeting and not only allowed the soldiers to be reburied, but also organized it with a military guard of honor. It was truly an act of goodwill to the extent that it was difficult to believe your eyes when you see Lithuanian honor guard soldiers carrying an Orthodox cross, coffins with the remains of Soviet soldiers and saluting them.

And this is against the backdrop of the fact that some politicians (up to entire factions in the Seimas) continue to “fight” the so-called “occupiers”, as if they have nothing else to do in Lithuania. For example, the “conservative” deputy of the Seimas of Lithuania, Katstutis Masiulis, without waiting for the decision of the city authorities, demanded that the stele of the victors be immediately removed from the cemetery. So, on October 21, he published an open appeal to the mayor of Biržai, Iruta Vazhena, in which he writes that the USSR brought only grief to Lithuania, and the “occupiers” are not “liberators.” He lists the horrors that, in his opinion, the Soviet regime brought to Lithuania, mentions the exiles and suppression of resistance of the so-called “forest brothers”. He also addressed the readers of his page on the social network Facebook; he also indicates the mayor’s email and asks his readers to also send her letters demanding the demolition of the monument. According to the politician, mass participation will speed up the decision-making process. Masiulis was most outraged by the sign on the monument, which notes that this monument was erected to the liberators of Biržai. It is noteworthy that in 2007 the entire burial area and the monument were restored with money allocated by the Russian Embassy in Lithuania.

But let's return to the burial of the soldiers. At 10:00 their funeral service began, which took place in. After the funeral service, the rector of this temple - priest priest Oleg Shlyakhtenko thanked everyone who came and addressed them:

Pagans and heretics say that there are people who are called to a special life, holiness, some special secret knowledge, the so-called chosen ones, and there are people who are not called to this. No. The Lord has called everyone to holiness, but there are those who themselves refuse this. They don’t want to, or are lazy, or out of negligence, but here we have evidence - people who have shown with their lives that it is possible and necessary, that it is possible for every person - to live for the sake of others, to serve others with their whole lives, to bear their cross without losing heart. Carry until the very end, until death. In addition to those people whom we held a funeral service for today, these warriors who, of course, are ascetic heroes because they laid down their lives for others. The Lord said that “greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” That's exactly what they did.

There are other saints who are not explicitly glorified by the Church. These are our contemporaries. Optina martyrs: Hieromonk Vasily, monks Trofim and Feropont, Archpriest Daniil Sysoev, who suffered martyrdom, warrior Eugene, whom many of you also know. A young guy who wore a cross on his chest to the end, although Muslims forced him to take off the cross and renounce Christ, and they forced other young guys who were next to him. Everyone except him and his friend renounced, but he remained until the end and died a difficult death, but did not lose heart. He remained faithful to Christ until his death. And each of us, brothers and sisters, should be like them, not to say that we are not such ascetics. God gave us all strength. If we lack strength, we can draw from the bottomless, endless source that God Himself gives us. The source of grace, which is the Church. As we sing in chants: “The desert has flourished like a cranium, Lord!” (The barren pagan church—the desert—has blossomed like a lily, Lord.) If the pagan Church, which flourishes like a desert, and for us it is incredible that the desert should flourish like a lily, then, in Christ, every person is barren, seemingly unspiritual, infirm, weak, having from God the support and nourishment of the grace of the Lord , can become a truly ascetic. This applies to each of us. We just need to learn to fight with our passions, with our negligence, our lukewarmness, indifference, just as other ascetics fought with invisible enemies, so we must fight with our invisible enemies who fight with us and tear us away from the Lord. We must be like them in faith - faithful until death. Let's be like that! Let us draw strength from the Lord Himself, Who gives it to us in Communion, confession, and the Sacraments of the Church, and we will be inspired by the example of those righteous people and those heroes, of whom there were many during the Great Patriotic War. In fact, this is our entire people. Let us also be inspired by the example of these people, so that we do not lose heart in our lives, but try to live like Christians. What were they fighting for? They fought for the faith, the Fatherland and the people. Our people - the Russian people - are unthinkable without faith, without Christianity. Dostoevsky said that if you take Christ away from a Russian person, then he will fall lower than a pagan; one might say that he will become worse than cattle because he will forget about everything that nourishes his Russian roots. We see this in the modern world, when people forget that there is a people, there is a culture, and they adopted all this from Christ, from the Christian faith, then, in the end, some kind of rift appears in our people.

Let us still, brothers and sisters, be faithful to Christ to the end.

Later at the cemetery, after the burial, Priest Oleg Shlyakhtenko also addressed the congregation with a pastoral word:

Today we gathered in front of the grave of heroes. There were many heroes and they remain because God has no dead, God has everyone alive and it is very important for us that all of them, these people, including those whom we performed the funeral service today, were different, even different nationalities. Some of them spoke different languages, but something united them. Something in this terrible war united those who fought for one thing. For one country, for your culture, for your faith, for your people. And today, too, we are all so different, people of different ages, different social status, different language groups, different, maybe even nationalities, different peoples, but everyone is gathered around them. They unite us not only today, but should always unite us.

In the history of the world, in the history of our countries, there have been many terrible wars. And, of course, the Great Patriotic War - World War II - is one of them, one of those terrible wars that shocked all of humanity. The most terrible thing about it was not even the war itself, but what the enemies went against the whole world with, with what idea. An idea in which there is no love, there is no sacrifice. They came with an idea that wanted to conquer all nations for the sake of raising their own national dignity, their nationality, their language. All other peoples were considered only servants of this people at best. And now, when you and I stand before those who fought for the unity of all our peoples, for our faith, for peace, for love between our peoples, we must remember this if we have forgotten. We must remember this, and try in our lives not just to remember, but to live in the way for which our ancestors, our warriors, those heroes and ascetics who died for the faith, for the people and the Fatherland, for everything that fills the entire history of our existence laid down their lives so that we could live today. We usually always remember this on victory days and other memorable days, but we forget that this war united everyone.

We don't need another war to unite again. We can live together without her, sacrificing something of our own, secondary, in order to be friends with each other. Some may find these words too harsh. I say this because in our Lithuania among Russians there is little unity that I would like to see. Few. And I would like moments like these, when we gather in front of fallen soldiers or, if someone on the Internet or other media sees that someone is gathering and considers himself Russian, so that he remembers the need for this unification. Associations are not against someone and behind something to be able to sacrifice, like the war heroes sacrificed. To sacrifice something of our minor importance for the sake of a high idea, for the sake of our faith. Truly, the strongest unifying force is the faith of people and the love that fills their hearts, but love without God is not true, sincere, it is not so deep, because the first feat of dying for people was shown by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. These ascetics, these heroes whom we buried today are “repeaters” of this feat, of course, not to the same extent as the Lord because no one can be like God in all His fullness and His being, even in His sacrifice, but still they are an icon of His feat, His sacrifice. And we ourselves must be worthy of this sacrifice of people.

And therefore I want to call you today, brothers and sisters, to live in such a way as to be able to seek this unification and find it with others. Without hatred, but in love, in self-sacrifice. Although there is no war on our land today, war is always going on in our hearts, war in ideology, in ideological space. They are trying to impose on our children, relatives, and our people certain principles that are not typical for them. For example, they are trying to impose the idea that if we want to return to our roots, we must return to pagan origins, but all this is a lie because our peoples - Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine - we all grew up Christian foundations. Only in them are the roots of our culture. Even if a person is an unbeliever, he must understand and admit this because everything that fills literature, poetry, musical creations, and painting, in its best classical manifestations, has its roots precisely in Christian foundations. Let us remember this, brothers and sisters, and seek unity through Christ our Lord, who united us all in His love.

God help everyone to live in the love and joy of God, then the Lord will unite us all. Amen.

Chairman of the organization of World War II participants living in Lithuania who fought on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, Julius-Lenginas Deksnis addressed the audience:

I cannot help but agree with the words of the respected priest. Everything I wanted to say, he said, but I just want to add this: we were able to bury them here so honorably because between our peoples - the people of Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other peoples, whose soldiers fought in the same army, there was a unification against a common enemy.

The enemies had the slogan on their buckle: “Gott mit uns.” It means "God is with us." No, this is not true, the Nazis did not have a God. They went against God, they went with aggression against the peoples of the whole world. And here I cannot help but note the contribution of our young Lithuanian state, the Russian state and our other neighbors. We were able to bury them here only thanks to the efforts of all these structures.

I was recently in Nevel. They also buried Lithuanian soldiers in a cemetery in a very wonderful place on the mountain near the monument to the 16th Lithuanian Infantry Division, former soldiers of the Lithuanian army, the old army, which joined the Soviet army in its time. This solemn burial was attended by soldiers, a representative of the Lithuanian army, and there was also a guard of honor there, just like here. It is very good, it is wonderful that the soldiers are present in an appropriate manner, honoring the memory of those who fought for our common victory, our common goals directed against the fascist invaders. I express my gratitude to all of you who came to this celebration, as well as to all those who expressed and will express their words here, the Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Kazakh embassies for taking part in this celebration, for your respect to those who died defending our beloved homeland Lithuania.

Thank you, dear comrades!

In conclusion at the grave, the head of the military history association “Forgotten Soldiers” Victor Orlov also addressed the audience:

On behalf of the Lithuanian Military History Association “Forgotten Soldiers”, I sincerely want to thank you for taking part in this solemn event and paying last respects to these soldiers. For my part, I can say, I have repeated this phrase many times, it is, one might say, already hackneyed: the war is not over until the last soldier is buried. For these soldiers the war is already over, but for many others it is still ongoing. Now work is underway to find the relatives of these soldiers so that they can finally find out where they are buried. I can say that the relatives of one fighter have already been found in the Russian Federation and they will be able to come and venerate the grave of their loved one at any time. And we will continue this work no matter what because it is our human and civic duty, regardless of nationality and citizenship.

And once again I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, from all my guys, for coming and supporting us. Thanks a lot!

INFORMATION ON BURIED WARRIORS:

Surname	Yakovlevich
Last duty station	39 Arm. 275 GSP
Military rank	Guards private
Reason for leaving	died of wounds
Disposal date
Name of information source

		Fedoseev
Surname		Stepanovich
Date of Birth/Age
Place of Birth	Altai Territory, Marushinsky district, Bannkovsky s/s, Anikino village
Date and place of recruitment		Altai Territory, Marushinsky RVK
Last duty station
Military rank		Guards private
Reason for leaving		died of wounds
Disposal date
Hospital		469 Motorized Infantry Rifle Guard 91st Guards sd
Name of information source
Fund number of the source of information
Information source inventory number
Source case number

Although it would seem that this is a secular holiday, we can say that this is the patronal holiday of our monastery. The iconography of our church depicts this holiday, this celebration, this veneration of a feat established by God, to which every Christian and every conscious citizen of a society, country, people is called.

24.02.2016 Through the labors of the brethren of the monastery 27 157

On February 23, our Russian people celebrate Defender of the Fatherland Day. Although it would seem that this is a secular holiday, we can say that this is the patronal holiday of our monastery. The iconography of our church depicts this holiday, this celebration, this veneration of a feat established by God, to which every Christian and every conscious citizen of a society, country, people is called. This feat, this duty is called holy, because it originates from the Gospel Word of Christ “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). From time immemorial, hundreds, thousands, millions of warriors walked and performed their duty. As they say, there are no unbelievers in the trenches. Evidence of this is one wonderful letter from a simple soldier who was on the front line of the Second World War, miraculously preserved. It was addressed to his mother. He writes a repentant appeal to her: “Forgive me, mom, that I laughed at your faith. But tomorrow our battalion goes on the attack, we are surrounded, I don’t know if I will survive this battle, probably few of us will return home from this battle. But for me now there is a goal and there is happiness: I look at the starry sky, lying in a trench, and I believe that there is One who created me from non-existence into being and who will accept me again. And with this faith I am not afraid.”

The Church equates this great feat with the feat of martyrdom. And despite the fact that in the army the morals are peasant, soldierly (as they say that in the army they don’t swear, but talk, and any tenderness and sensitivity is called familiarity, there you need to speak briefly and clearly, without unnecessary words, do what is ordered) . But there is always the Gospel sacrificial Love of Christ. I myself was born and raised in military garrisons and know real officers, served in the army as a monk, lived in remote military units that are deprived of all secular entertainment, pleasure and ordinary human benefits. During that period of the 90s, salaries were not paid for six months, but the military still marched, sometimes at night, and did their duty. And it was clear that they were driven by something more than what drives many people in modern society. I also saw the feat of their wives and mothers. At that time, planes were unreliable and often crashed. They flew over the house. And when my father was on duty at night, we, as children, fell asleep, but we saw that my mother was sitting in the kitchen and could wait until the morning. Now, dear ones, we will honor this feat. Because not only the living, but many who have already given their lives, fulfilling their duty, have departed to another world.

What I wanted to say, I wrote this holiday morning in verse:

This duty to the Saints is called
Because only by Holy Love
Everything is created in this world!
Because this Commandment
The Lord Himself wrote on our hearts:
There is no love holier or greater
Yes, who gave their life for others.
Only those who fulfilled this duty to the end,
Who gave their lives for the Motherland.
Who at any moment, both in cold and in heat
I was ready to go into mortal combat for a just cause,
Give your life, shed your blood,
So that the descendants continue to live through this.
The country is behind us, there is one goal ahead -
To protect the one that was given to us from God -
The defenseless lives of millions of children,
Tears of fragile but faithful mothers in love,
Preserve your faith, your father's land and the honor of your daughters,
Its great, powerful language and sacred churches.
So let us honor with a minute of silence those
About which all words are not enough for us to speak worthily,
And let us prayerfully remember their names
Before the Throne of Him to Whom their life is exalted.

On Sunday evening we served a prayer service for world peace, and every day at the Divine Liturgy the Church prays for this. But what is the world? True peace, which each of us and the whole world so lacks, is not just any way, as long as it is quiet and calm. There is no peace between Christ and Belial, and there can be no compromise with sin. But true peace is Christ Himself, Who said: “I am peace.” That is why the Church, when it addresses the coming people through a priest and sends “Peace to all,” it offers to accept Christ into its heart by the Holy Spirit, “proclaims the death of Christ and confesses His Resurrection” (1 Cor. 11:26).

Therefore, before reading the Holy Gospel, this exclamation sounds: “Peace to all!” For it is impossible to hear with your heart and understand with your mind the Gospel Revelation if you do not have peace with your conscience and peace with Christ and your neighbor. And therefore, at the very climax of the Divine Liturgy, in the Eucharistic canon, we give a holy kiss to each other. Now this is happening somewhat spiritually. But the cry remained the same ancient, early Christian one: “Let us love one another, so that with one mind we confess the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” In the Slavic language in Serbia and Montenegro, kissing means love: “kissing an icon” means loving the icon.

It is precisely at this moment of Golgotha, Gethsemane, that we again lack this world. And, perhaps, now the whole world is filled with the dynamics of mutual hatred, envy, distrust, brotherly hatred precisely because, perhaps, in the Church you and I so lack this peace with Christ, with our conscience. All this is a crack in the general edifice of humanity. Each of us must remember this.

Not all were called to be among the twelve and seventy apostles, but, as it is said, many disciples followed Christ and many wives served Him from their property and thus became participants in the apostolic preaching. In the same way, in this holy feat, everyone does not have to wear caps and shoulder straps, but we are all called to this holy feat - to lay down our souls for our friends and enemies. Therefore, you need to prepare now, every day, so that on that day, at the right moment, you are ready to take this step, to make the right decision.

We know that many of our Valaam monks, more than three hundred people, went into the First World War willingly to lay down their souls for their friends. There were many holy warriors in Rus', including monastics. As we know, St. Sergius, blessing Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy for the holy war of liberation, gave him as a blessing not only his elder word, not only God’s blessing, but also as material proof of his sacrifice, like the Heavenly Father, who sacrificed His Beloved Son, his two close monks Alexander Peresvet and Andrei Oslyabyu, having previously tonsured them into the great schema and sent them to the last battle.

As we know, Peresvet took upon itself a great historical responsibility when, on the Kulikovo Field, a truly turning point came for the history of our entire people, who for many years, centuries, had been under the heavy Tatar-Mongol yoke, which did not allow us to raise our heads and unite into a single people Russian. These were scattered principalities, forced to survive miserably, paying tribute to their occupier. But Saint Sergius, having given his blessing through his two schemamonks, prayed for this people. And so, on this field, when a whole sea of ​​​​armies gathered (who saw the famous picture of the Kulikovo field - the enemy army was visible to the horizon, approaching the Russian land, and from this view it only became scary and clear that it was impossible to stop it with human efforts) , according to ancient custom, the invincible, enormously tall Chelubey, who was skilled in many wars and battles and had vast experience in warfare, goes out ahead of everyone to battle one on one. He proudly, like Goliath once laughing at the people of Israel, stood and laughed, saying: “Who dares to come against me?” Everyone knew the responsibility of this first battle, because if our chosen one loses this battle, then the spirit of the entire army will fall, and it will be doomed to defeat. For a long time he stood there, mocking him like Goliath, and no one dared to take on this responsibility. And then Schemamonk Alexander Peresvet came forward and said: “I’ll go.” They brought out weapons, armor, and chain mail to him, like royal David. But he refused everything, saying that his Schema would be enough for him. And mounting his horse, he ran out with a spear to meet Chelubey. As one chronicler describing this event says, they pierced each other at full gallop. But the huge Chelubey immediately fell from his horse and remained lying on the field, and Peresvet, being strengthened by God’s grace, victoriously returned to the Russian army in the saddle, showing that God is with us and our cause is just, we will win. This was God's blessing, the blessing of St. Sergius. Let us, dear brothers, try to be worthy of our fathers and grandfathers, and prepare ourselves every day for this holy feat.

Hieromonk David (Legeida),