Речевой портрет его Святейшества Патриарха Московского и Всея Руси Кирилла в свете учения Феофана Затворника о пастырском служении

4th year undergraduate student Ekaterinodar Theological Seminary Exploring in my thesis the speech portrait of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia as an example of a Christian speaker, I would like to present him from the point of view of the requirements for pastoral service presented in the works of Theophan the Recluse. We all see that in our time, current society is moving further and further away from its cultural roots and true values. Forgetting about all this, they fall into the pool of passions and eternal torment. And in order to touch the hearts of people and lead them onto the path of salvation, Patriarch Kirill constantly fights not only for the salvation of every soul, but also for the salvation of the whole world. Many of our compatriots have moved away from their true spiritual heritage, which our great saints and devotees of piety left us. And to understand the complexity of the Patriarch’s preaching work, it is necessary to consider the duties of shepherds, which Theophan the Recluse speaks about. The legacy of Theophan the Recluse is of great value, since it is his works that are more capable than others of conveying to clergy the experience of preaching in secular society. One of the main works on the shepherding of St. Theophan of Vyshensky is the interpretation of the Epistles of the Apostle Paul to Titus and Timothy. Saint Theophan the Recluse, speaking about the main responsibilities of a shepherd, wrote: “The work of all of them is to build the house of God through teaching, sacraments, sacred rites, leadership, or, what is the same, to shepherd the church. Hence there are always shepherds in the church, or without shepherds there is no church, for through them the kingdom of God is transmitted from century to century” 754. From what has been said, it follows that the very first and main duty of a shepherd is constant care and concern for the salvation of his flock. This responsibility combines the following pastoral responsibilities. The salvation of man is accomplished not by human strength, but by the grace of God (Eph. 2:5). From this it is clear that the first duty of the shepherd is to bring grace to his flock by God-given means, i.e. sacred rite. Grace is received and assimilated only by faith. From this follows the second duty of the pastor - to arouse and revive the faith of his flock with the Gospel preaching, in other words, his duty is to teach people. In order for believers to not lose grace in the fight against evil, but, on the contrary, to bear fruit in good deeds, they need vigilant guidance. And this is the third responsibility of the shepherd - to lead his flock in the spiritual Christian life. About these three and most important duties, Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples: “Going and teaching all languages ​​(duty to teach), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (duty of sacrament), teaching them to observe all the things that are commanded to you” (Matthew 28:19) 755. In the Orthodox Church there is a hierarchy that performs the apostolic or pastoral feat. The hierarchy in the Church, “as a special class of persons invested with the power to teach, officiate and govern, is a Divine institution” 756. They receive their dignity and power to bring down the grace of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments from the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit through a special visible ritual called the Sacrament of Priesthood, or Ordination. “On the apostles,” says St. Theophan the Recluse, “the Holy Spirit descended directly, but their successors receive It through ordination” 757. Grace is given to hierarchical service through prayer and Ordination, gives the initiate the right to shepherd the verbal flock of Christ and endows him with grace-filled power and authority to perform the holy Sacraments. The first and highest degree of priesthood in the Holy Church is the degree of bishop (episkopos - observer, guardian, guardian). The bishop is the bearer of the highest grace of the priesthood and all the fullness of the hierarchical power of the apostles; through him all other degrees of the priesthood receive continuity and significance. “We believe,” say the Eastern patriarchs, “that a bishop is as necessary for the Church as breath is for a person and the sun is for the world. Therefore, some, in praise of the episcopal rank, say well, “As God is in the Church of the firstborn in heaven, and the sun in the world, so is each bishop in his own private Church, so that by him the flock is sanctified, warmed and made a church of God” 758 . The bishop is the ruler of his private Church (Acts 20:28). “The Church - the community of believers - is the house of God. A bishop is assigned to look after this house and observe the proper order in it” 759. First of all, he has power over the clergy subordinate to him, who do nothing in the Church without his permission and are subject to his supervision and judgment (1 Tim. 5:19). In addition to the clergy, the entire flock entrusted to him is subject to the spiritual supervision of the bishop. The bishop observes everything that happens in his flock and affirms the good and corrects the bad. The bishop watches especially vigilantly, “whether wolves are not creeping up, not sparing the flock, so that when he sees such ones, he drives them away with the rod of his shepherding. He has been appointed guardian of the house of God, why must he watchfully guard this house” 760. The bishop is the main teacher in his Church - both for the laity and for the pastors themselves, and therefore he must be “so full of teaching” that at every opportunity “teaching flows from his mouth like a river” 761. The bishop, by the power of the Spirit, is the first celebrant and performer of the sacraments in his private Church. The souls of people are entrusted to him, but since he cannot be everywhere himself, he shares his work with the elders, who constitute the second degree of the priesthood. According to the Right Reverend Theophan, “priests are the eyes, legs and hands of the bishop. The bishop and the priests are one shepherd, inseparable” 762. The pastors of the Church have from Christ Himself, by succession from the apostles and bishops, the Divine authority to govern the Church and perform the Sacraments established for the conferring of the gifts of sanctifying grace. In sacred rites, they are only visible instruments of the invisible High Priest of Christ, they truly do the work of God, and therefore they must try to maintain reverence and attention when performing sacred rites, for, according to the Holy Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who does the work of God with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). The Lord rules the Church, and priests are instruments of God, conductors of all the treasures of the Church for their flock, and are called to reveal the will of God to people living on earth, to help them achieve the Kingdom of Heaven. Shepherds “stand in the middle, at the transition from earth to heaven, and either they raise people to God, or they bow God to people. What did John the Baptist do? He brought people to God. The shepherds are now doing the same according to the will of the Lord” 763. Examining the speech portrait of Patriarch Kirill as a shepherd in the light of the teachings of Theophan the Recluse, we can say that he adheres to these requirements and constantly strives for the ideal of a preacher. His Holiness has an undoubted gift of preaching; his speech is understandable to a modern person, even if he is not a church member. All the Patriarch’s sermons are aimed at showing how the words of eternal Divine truths relate to the realities of everyday life, its worries, joys and sorrows. His sermons are compiled as a kind of guide, which is aimed at improving the lives of his flock. In the Patriarch's sermons, one can note several cross-cutting topics that he constantly touches on: about youth, about the laity, about the intelligentsia and about the organization of parish life. The Patriarch pays great attention to working with young people, since it is young people who most need help, not financially, but spiritually. The Patriarch spoke about this in his interview: “Young people today are putting the ladder in the wrong place. They won’t even make it a third of the way – they’ll break down. That’s why I want to meet with young people, that’s why I want to tell them something from my own experience, or rather, not so much from my own experience, but from the thousand-year experience of the Church; but to convey this in words understandable to young people, in order to arouse some jealousy to take care of themselves, and not make fatal mistakes” 764. One can say about the Patriarch’s managerial activities that he is trying to establish the smoothness and functionality of the missionary work of the Russian Orthodox Church. His Holiness has a very large number of publications and his own books in this direction, for example, such as: “The Holy Land”, “The Mystery of Repentance”, “The Word of the Primate”, “Keep the faith in your hearts”, “The Patriarch and Youth”, etc. In addition, entire series of television programs with speeches by Patriarch Kirill are published: “The Word of the Shepherd” - an introduction to the Orthodox faith; “Word-Sacrament-Church” - the history of the early Christian Church and the doctrine of the Church; “Attitude towards heterodoxy”; “The Word of the Shepherd” - Church, state, politics (part 1), Church, personality, society (part 2), about faith and salvation (part 3), does Russia have a future (part 4) 765. Dozens of films are being produced with recordings of worship services, sermons, live performances, etc. The Patriarch constantly participates in youth congresses, various conferences, readings and is active in various types of educational activities. More and more people are coming to church, but educational activity is not only about bringing a person to church - it is necessary to lead him on the path to Salvation, as Patriarch Kirill said at one of his meetings: “The Church undoubtedly influences the spiritual life of the nation. And the time in which we live requires from us, while strictly preserving our pious traditions, also the ability to use various kinds of means through which the eternal revealed truths would reach the consciousness and heart of modern man” 766. From various angles, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill brings a person to the realization that Christ should be at the head of his life, and not family, work or any other, albeit quite important, components. The divine dimension of life should be the main one. And if it is so, then the rest of a person’s life will be built in the right way, both from a spiritual and a human point of view. All this is deeply rooted in the Gospel, for the Lord calls us: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Theophan the Recluse, St. Outline of Christian moral teaching. M., 1891. P. 355. Practical instructions for pastors: summary. Kiev: Kiev Theological Seminary, 2012. P. 3 Nikolai Malinovsky, archpriest. Orthodox dogmatic theology. T. 3. Sergiev Posad, 1909. P. 525. Feofan, bishop Interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul. Ed. 2nd. M., 1894. P. 511. Message of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church on the Orthodox Faith. St. Petersburg, 1838. P. 34. Feofan, bishop Interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul. M., 1894. P. 53. Feofan, bishop Feofan. Interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul. Interpretation of the first Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to Timothy // Interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul. Ed. 2nd. M., 1894. P. 282. Theophan the Recluse, St. Outline of Christian moral teaching. M., 1891. P. 402. Patriarch Kirill: about love and death, about youth and holiness, about war and prayer. URL: http://www.pravmir.ru/patriarx-kirill-o-lyubvi/html His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill URL: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/authors/1074.html Meeting of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. URL: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/94352.html