Bishop Panteleimon: true Christianity is not external, but inner doing

    

With the blessing of his Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill under Sergiev Posad from 15 to 22 July is the Orthodox youth forum “Dobrolet. The territory of faith.” He gathered about 1000 young people from 18 to 35 years from dozens of regions of Russia and CIS countries. July 17, the day of remembrance of the Royal martyrs, with members of the forum met with the Chairman of the Synodal Department for charity Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevo Panteleimon, reports Diakoniai.

At the beginning of his speech, the vicar of his Holiness Patriarch recalled the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Royal martyrs. “They showed that they were not just as reigning persons, that they just lived for their own pleasure in the fame and fortune, but doing his duty, remained faithful to Christ, faithful to each other in a heavy and terrible trials,” said Bishop Panteleimon.

True Christianity is not external, but internal work – said the Chairman of the Synodal Department. In order that God will be with us, not only to sing only the old Testament commandments, to comply with the formal rules of the Church; it is not enough outwardly to look like a decent human being, think only about the happiness of his personal life.

“The inner work – the essence of Christianity, Christianity is life in the Holy Spirit. Such a life taught the saints,” said Bishop Panteleimon, urging young people to read the works of the Holy fathers and lives of saints.

The main part of the speech of the Chairman of the Synodal Department was devoted to family life. “The modern world almost completely forgot about what chastity is. I’m talking about chastity in a wide sense of the word, implying a holistic sophistry about the world – wise about the world in General, but not a part thereof, said Bishop Panteleimon. – You need to remember the spiritual side of life. Chastity is when you never forget about God, chastity – when able to see and appreciate the beauty of the human soul. Chastity is when you know how to appreciate good books, good music, the beauty of nature when you live not only with his body. This is when you can sympathize with and compassion for other people in their troubles, their problems, know how to help them know how to understand them”.

The trials of the past century, a century of persecution, gave way to other difficulties., said Bishop Panteleimon, “And the heavy, terrible temptation of our century, I think, is the destruction of the family. Due to the fact that it destroys the family, it becomes very difficult to educate the next generation. The child may be brought only in the family – he needs the parents,” said the vicar of his Holiness Patriarch.

If a person wants to start a family, he needs to learn to love, to sympathize, to empathize, to understand another person – told for young people the Rev. “We, modern people, are very poorly understand each other, really do not know how to communicate with each other, very badly know each other, to serve, to help. And I think that very well would happen to all the Orthodox volunteers participated in the social Ministry of the Church in deeds of mercy,” said Bishop Panteleimon.

“Love is an amazing thing: the more you give, the more generously you share it, the more you receive this love, more joy,” said Bishop Panteleimon. At the end of the meeting the Chairman of the Synodal Department for charity and answered questions from participants.

Youth forum “Dobrolet” takes place in 2016. The main purpose of the forum is the systematization and consolidation of the Orthodox volunteerism. The forum for the previous two years, gathered on its platform more than 1000 young participants from 46 dioceses in Russia and abroad.

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