Speech of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the Volga Orthodox Institute in Togliatti

Dear high leaders of state power! Dear masters, fathers, brothers and sisters! Dear students and students! The impression that he saw made me so strong that I can not find the right comparison. There is nothing like this in the See of Moscow, which means that you are really much ahead of the others. And not only because beautiful buildings were built, but also because work with children and young people is being built very correctly, and work at different levels - both a school, a college, and a higher educational institution. The very fact of the existence of such an educational center is very important from the point of view of transmitting intellectual and spiritual impulses to the environment, especially young people. I can give such a comparison: when a swimmer falls under water, with each meter in depth he experiences more and more pressure. Then there comes a moment when a person cannot go further without special means - he needs oxygen reserves, a spacesuit and much, much more, because the environment from completely friendly, what it can be on the surface, becomes completely hostile at depth. The same image can be applied to human life, to human experience. In childhood, everything seems very easy, beautiful, everything around is kind, good. But as soon as a person begins to plunge into the depths - into the depths of life, worldview, relationships with others - he is more and more experiencing the pressure of the environment. And it happens so that under the pressure of the environment, the human personality is destroyed, often at a very young age. It is destroyed not only spiritually, but also physically - from alcohol, drugs, from a dissolved lifestyle. An increase in the level of comfort — and it is quite obvious that the level of comfort is constantly growing these days — often leads not to release energy for new achievements, but to lower our hands, go with the flow and, finally, sink to that very depth, to which becomes unsafe spiritual, moral, intellectual and even physical condition of a person. I would ask you to remember this image of a man who sinks under water. The deeper, the more we should take care of our safety, and in a sense we are all like divers: the older we get, the more serious we get involved, the more challenges and dangers for the human person. And so that this layer of water does not crush us, we must be prepared for resistance. And what does it mean? This does not mean to bite the bullet and look at the world around us with an evil squint. This means having inner freedom from such influences from the outside that can crush us like a thicker water. But in the end it comes to freedom. A truly free person can build his relationships with the world around him so that no harmful influences will destroy him. He protects his freedom, although in our time it is quite difficult. Each of you knows what a huge impact the Internet has on us, the media, how much time we spend on computers, what a huge information stream is crashing down on us. This is the same water column, and do not be indifferent to this information flow! In order for the information flow not to crush you, how the water column can physically crush a person, you must certainly have the appropriate equipment, that is, such a mood of thoughts, such a nurturing of will that makes it possible to go against the tide, if this tide is dangerous for the mental, moral and spiritual human condition. This is true freedom. The word "freedom" has been unscrupulously exploited in the past, and often even today. I have little time left to read books, but due to the fact that now I feel like a short vacation, I read a book about the pre-revolutionary years in Russia, about how the catastrophe was approaching. Indeed, a disaster that resulted in the destruction of a huge number of people. And how many did not see it, being simply enslaved, captured by cracking terminology, fashionable ideas, completely not thinking about what all this could turn out to be, if someone really starts to realize his plan. They realized it only when the killings, repressions, dispossession, destruction of people began. They were waiting for freedom, but what did they get in return? At some point, our people lost the guiding thread, lost the ability to resist propaganda, using the modern language, and if we say in the language of the Church, resist the temptations that enslave man. It is faith, my dear, Christian faith and Christian beliefs that give us the ability to remain free, to build life based on our beliefs, to build life in such a way as not to yield to the onslaught of that terrible water column that can crush human nature. So I would like to urge all of you to ensure that you never lose your vigilance, never lose your ability to evaluate what is happening around us from the point of view of the word of God. Indeed, in the word of God there is a moral law, moral commandments. How to distinguish between spirits, how to distinguish where is truth and where is false, where is the prophetic word, and where is the temptation to destroy man? Based on the criteria of your faith, your moral feeling, the word of God, the commandments of God, evaluate the screamers, “heroes”, “outstanding people” who infect you with all kinds of ideas, and then you will never find yourself in the depths of the water column that can crush you person. Faith for us is a symbol of our freedom. We all want to be free, and remember that a believer is the freest person. He is able to rise above everything that enslaves people, including in our time. Faith and freedom are values ​​that the Lord has given us and which you and I must not only accept with our minds and hearts, but carry them through our whole lives. Let God preserve this freedom that we received through the Gospel, the very wisdom that the Lord gave us, and at the same time the ability to build a peaceful, just and happy life. I cordially greet all of you! I am glad to meet you today under these beautiful majestic vaults. Save me, God.