In the early hours of Easter Sunday, April 16, Patriarch Kirill celebrated the Liturgy in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in downtown Moscow, packed with people, including top government officials. 

In his brief Easter address the Head of the Russian Church touched upon the most significant issues of the present day, both temporal and eternal, which for a Christian mindset are hard to set apart:

Christ is risen! – For two thousand years the Church has been bringing the Good News of His salvation to people with these very words.  There is the fire of our faith in them, the power of love, the foundation of hope, the cornerstone of the Church, the pivot of the New Testament message, the core of Christian life and our entire future.

No matter what happens in a world, so unpredictable and restless, prone to contradictions, no matter what difficulties and trials may befall us, we know, we believe and we preach: the joy of Easter over the risen Savior remains unchanging and victorious.

His Holiness went on, reminding that the Savior opened the gates of Heaven to each and everyone willing to follow Him, His way of life and thought, His mindset and attitude to the world. The Patriarch quotes a famous Saint of recent years, St. Nicholas (Velimirovich), whо died in 1956 in South Canaan, PA:

Christ is risen means that life is stronger than death. Christ is risen means good is stronger than evil. Christ is risen means that all our hopes are about to come true. Christ is risen, and it brings about the solution to all our problems.

With a visible pain of heart Patriarch Kirill turns to the on-going armed conflict in Ukraine, to the tragedy of our people, carefully staged and constantly fueled by NATO forces.

Our most fervent prayers are for people in the war zone. We cannot remain indifferent to the troubles and hardships of our brothers and sisters, whose hearts are scorched by the fire of civil war… We ask the Lord to heal their wounds, physical and spiritual, to assuage all grief and to give our brotherly peoples, descendants of the same baptismal font, lasting and just peace.

The Patriarch calls everyone to follow Christ and live by His commandments in pursuit of justice and righteousness, thus bringing witness of the Risen Lord to the entire world.