At the plenary session of the XX International Christmas educational readings, His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, read the report: "Moral values ​​and the future of humanity."

The theory of planetary humanism

“If God did not exist, He would have to be invented,” said Voltaire, emphasizing the importance of religious faith for the moral health of a person and society. Today, in the era of globalization, many secular politicians harbor the idea of ​​“planetary humanism,” that is, the introduction of a single ideological standard for all people on the planet. This standard will be based on the so-called “universal human values,” that is, on the basis of secular morality, an integral part of which is not the traditional moral principle inherent in every religion, but the idea of ​​human rights as the highest value. The leaders of modern secularism, liberal humanists, reacting painfully to any religious symbols and mentions of God, insist, unlike Voltaire, on a different expression: “If there is a God, one must remain silent about Him.” God has no place, in their opinion, in the sphere of social life.
The history of mankind has repeatedly demonstrated the utopianism and disastrousness of such humanistic theories, which are built on a distorted anthropological paradigm, on the denial of traditional values, on the rejection of the religious ideal and the overthrow of God-established moral norms. Until recently, theories of this kind could only be put into practice in a single country. However, the idea of ​​“planetary humanism” is dangerous in that it claims world domination, declaring itself as a norm that all people must accept and assimilate, regardless of their national, cultural or civilizational identity. Let's try to understand what this can lead to.

Basic concepts of morality
In our opinion, humanity still exists only because there is a difference between good and evil, between truth and falsehood, between holiness and sin. However, modern civilization has begun to abandon these concepts, placing emphasis on the freedom of the human person. In modern liberal philosophy there is no concept of sin, there is only pluralism of the behavioral model: any behavior is considered justified and acceptable if it does not violate the freedom of another person. As a result of this approach, the boundary between good and evil is erased.
At the same time, the ability to distinguish good from evil is a moral sense that is endowed exclusively by man. His ability to direct his will towards good or evil is called freedom. However, the main value of freedom is not the ability to choose between good and evil, but the choice of good: “You were called to freedom, brethren, so that your freedom does not become an excuse to please the flesh, but serve one another through love” (Gal. 5: 13). Christianity has always emphasized that only following the path of moral life helps a person gain freedom (John 8:32).
Representatives of historical secularism (Renaissance, Enlightenment, revolutionaries) put forward the idea of ​​freedom, excluding the Christian meaning from it. Ultimately, there was an absolutization of human personal freedom, reducing it to freedom of choice, and therefore to the possibility of choosing in favor of evil. In practice, this absolutization resulted in moral and axiological relativism.
That is why modern secular consciousness does not know such a concept as “sin”. Although in his vocabulary there are terms such as “crime”, “violation of the law”, “guilt” and even “moral prohibition”. But the concept of “sin” for someone who does not and cannot have any absolute moral guidelines or criteria simply does not exist. The concept of sin cannot be expressed in terms of secular ethics; it cannot be reduced to elements of a system of moral guidelines, although it carries a pronounced moral content. Modern secular consciousness imposes on humanity the idea that there are no absolute moral standards like sin, that all morality is relative, that a person can live in accordance with the scale of moral values ​​that he creates for himself, and his scale can be different (up to opposites) from the conventional morality of the other.
However, man differs precisely from animals in that God has given him another internal strength that is not given to animals - a moral principle. If morality is separated from religion, from the Divine principle, it will disappear. Let us remember F. M. Dostoevsky: “If there is no God... therefore, everything is permitted.” From an atheistic point of view, it is impossible to explain the presence of a moral law within every person, whether he is a believer or not. True, there are attempts to explain the manifestation of morality by a person’s culture, the circumstances of his life, or something similar, but there is an understatement in them, because the difference between good and evil is the feeling of a person living anywhere on the globe and during any historical era, this the voice of his conscience, sounding throughout history. If we separate morality from real life, then people really turn into animals, driven only by instinct. In fact, why should someone sacrifice themselves for the sake of another, why should someone give something to another, when it is logical to strive for maximum acquisition?.. Morality that is not inspired by faith is flawed, because it relies on wavering and subjectively determined foundations, when a person strives to be “the measure of all things.” This view, which has a very long history, continues to serve as a rationale for liberal secularism.
There are many examples in history that prove the monstrous consequences of the introduction of “conditional morality”: the rise to power in Germany of the Nazis, who declared the destruction of Jews moral, the destruction of believers in Bolshevik Russia as “enemies of the people.” The perception of morality as a relative rather than an absolute category creates the potential for all kinds of conflicts, including armed ones. And when such dangerous weapons as atomic weapons are in the hands of a person, moral pluralism can turn into a tragedy for humanity.

Christianization and de-Christianization of the world
Absolute moral values ​​are our common foundation. The entire human civilization developed on it until recently. Within the framework of the Christian value system, an idea of ​​the high dignity of man was formed. Thanks to the Christian attitude towards man, slavery was condemned and destroyed, an objective court procedure was developed, high socio-political standards of life were formed, the ethics of interpersonal relations were determined, science and culture were developed. Moreover, the very concept of human rights arose not without the influence of Christian teaching about the dignity of man, his freedom and moral life. From its very inception, human rights developed on the basis of Christian morality. In Christian patristic anthropology, these two categories - freedom and morality - are inextricably linked. The absolutization of one of these categories to the detriment of the other inevitably leads to tragedy for the individual and society.
Today, before our eyes, there is a de-Christianization of life, a breakdown in the relationship between human rights and morality. This is observed in the emergence of a new generation of rights that are contrary to morality, as well as in the justification of immoral acts with the help of human rights. Traditional morality no longer matters, what matters is the freedom of human choice. But by not taking morality into account, we ultimately stop taking freedom into account. Morality is freedom already realized as a result of responsible choice, limiting oneself for the good and benefit of the individual or the whole society. It ensures the vitality and development of society, its unity. The destruction of moral norms and the promotion of moral relativism can undermine a person’s worldview, which will lead to the loss of spiritual and cultural identity and, as a consequence, an independent place in history.
A few examples. Look what is happening to family values ​​today. The famous religious and political thinker of the 20th century I. A. Ilyin wrote: “History has shown... great collapses and disappearances of peoples arise from spiritual and moral crises, which are expressed, first of all, in the decomposition of the family.” Before our eyes, the traditional family is being abolished as an outdated social institution. The ideals of family, marriage, marital fidelity, and childbearing are ridiculed and spat upon. In the public space, ideas of sexual promiscuity, debauchery, the permissibility of adultery, abortion, and homosexual relations are cultivated. Moreover, the latter are equated with traditional marriage. More and more often, the question is being raised: if a person is free, then why should the law limit the age of entry into sexual relations?
The destruction of a family is a time bomb that can undermine the moral basis of entire generations.
Sometimes it seems that we live in some kind of upside down world. In a world where the scale of values ​​is overturned, where good is called evil, and evil is called good, life is death, and death is life. Values ​​based on a religious moral ideal are systematically desecrated, and new moral norms, not rooted in tradition and contrary to human nature itself, are being introduced into the masses. Millions of unborn babies are being robbed of their lives, while the elderly and terminally ill are being offered the “right to die with dignity.” We are witnessing today an unacceptable attempt to level out the differences between vice and virtue, between good and evil.

The pledge of the future of humanity
In the life of peoples, faith, morality and culture are inseparable from each other. Violation of this organic unity leads to disastrous results. The moral component should always lie at the basis of human existence, and it is impossible without religion, since only religion gives a person a solid moral foundation, only in the religious tradition there is an idea of ​​absolute moral values.
Why does a person live, what values ​​is his life based on? This is the most important question for representatives of both secular and religious worldviews. And ultimately, the future of humanity depends on the answer to it: whether our nations will multiply or shrink and gradually disappear, whether sin and permissiveness will reign in society, or whether a person will be guided by absolute moral standards, which in the language religions are called God's commandments.
The internal moral law implanted by God into human nature is irrational. It is recognized by the voice of conscience, which is stronger for some, weaker for others. It is thanks to religion that the internal moral law acquires specific cultural and rational categories and takes the form of human law: do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not condemn. All law is based on morality. If laws cease to correspond to the moral basis, then humanity abandons these laws.
The moral choice of a modern person always has a schatological perspective, because the course of human history and its ending depends on whether he follows the path of life or death. Our task is to show modern man and modern society that Christian values ​​are not abstract ideas or archaic superstitions, but truly principles of life, the rejection of which can lead to the collapse of culture, society, and personal human destinies. And the sooner humanity understands that morality is a way of survival for the individual, family, collective, society, and the entire human civilization, the less tragic its further history will be.
If we want to have a spiritually strong, morally healthy and economically stable society in the future, then it is very important, even in the younger generation, to form a system of moral values ​​that would be oriented towards ideas about absolute good and evil. The young years of any normally developing individual are the most difficult and responsible time in the formation of a human personality. This is a time of searching for a life ideal, this is a time of gaining moral support for existence, and finally, this is an acute rejection of injustice and imperfection of the world around us. Remember the words of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen “I began to be afraid... terribly afraid of youth... Youth is retribution.” Children, teenagers and young people today are the part of modern society that is the most spiritually vulnerable and experiences the most dramatic moral overload. They, like no one else, need spiritual support today, because they have been morally disoriented since early childhood. And the development of our society in the future depends on what system of values ​​is embedded in them today.
That is why it is necessary to acquaint children and youth with the basic national culture of their people, which includes, among other things, religious culture. For many centuries, the Orthodox faith has been an organic part of the existence of our people. This was reflected in the exploits of Russian holiness, and in the customs of piety, carefully passed down from generation to generation, and in the patriotic exploits of the heroes of the Fatherland, and in monuments of writing, architecture, iconography and church singing, as well as in native speech, permeated with biblical vision and understanding of the world and man. It is precisely from this national basic culture that a system of values ​​grows, national values ​​that shape both the individual and society.
The school has always participated not only in the intellectual education of the child, it also actively shaped his personality. Today, when the “Fundamentals of Religious Culture” is included in the educational framework, the school’s tasks have become even more responsible and broader. It is through religious education in school that it is possible and necessary to carry out the moral education of children, which in turn will contribute to the process of creating a strong personality, a strong family and, as a result, a reliable state.
Today the Church faces a huge missionary task, as His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' tirelessly reminds. It is also necessary to continue and expand educational and educational activities. In this work of public salvation, the Church and the school are natural co-workers. The task of modern education is to teach a person, on the one hand, to be sufficiently open to the perception of what the modern world brings to him, and on the other, to be able to preserve his national, spiritual, religious, cultural identity, and along with this identity, preserve the moral system of values .
To rescue the human personality from the embrace of anti-culture, anti-Christianity, and return it to God is an urgent task that faces us all today.

"Moral values ​​and the future of humanity"
Art. Bryukhovetskaya, October 12, 2017

All-honorable fathers, brothers and sisters!

I am glad to welcome all of you - dear participants and guests at the V Michael-Arkhangelsk Spiritual and Educational Readings!
The eternity and relevance of moral values ​​is indisputable. At all stages of human development, the category of the concept of “morality” was comprehended from different angles and with different depths. The term “moral education” was interpreted differently: sometimes it was replaced by the concepts of “moral education”, “spiritual education”, “social education”.
Vladimir Monomakh, the Grand Duke of Kiev, in his “Teachings” included in the Laurentian Chronicle, gave his sons and contemporaries a number of instructions: “... do not forget God, do not have pride in your heart and mind, respect old people, when you go to war, do not be lazy , beware of lies, give drink and food to those who ask... Don’t forget the poor, give to the orphan and the widow, judge for yourself... Honor the old as your father, and the young as your brothers... Don’t let a person pass without greeting him, and say a kind word to him.” In the "Instructions" the prince says that he tried to build his life according to the same rules that he writes about to his sons. He is concerned about the problem of human moral responsibility, the preservation of such feelings and qualities as compassion, justice, honor, and hard work.
What can morality be compared to and what can it be likened to? Thinkers from different eras have interpreted this concept in diverse and imaginative ways. But we are closer to the one that says that morality is an excellent degree of human decency and virtue.
The system of prohibitions, which arose as conclusions from the experience of human life, gives rise to moral laws. In the society of the first people, selfishness was curbed by the forces of the collective, labor interaction and mutual assistance developed. The criterion of good and evil was determined by what was beneficial or harmful to the clan and tribe. There were no courts, police, prisons - there was freedom of collectivism. On the other hand, man was not free from the despotism of the collective, from traditions, omens, rituals, and the elemental forces of nature that he worshiped - this is all among the pagans.
God's chosen people begin to live according to a set of rules and established norms that are based on the Law. Violation of these rules is punishable, not by society, but by this Law itself.
The adoption of Christianity gave a person the opportunity to liberate himself from the shackles of a sinful, corrupt world. A timid soul is seduced by the devil, and from this comes evil deeds. During prayer, a person realizes himself as a servant of God, and during the remission of sins he experiences freedom as freedom from sin. Christianity gives birth to the concept of spiritual freedom. And it is expressed in the fact that a person can make his own choice. If the choice is subject to certain rules, the mind dominates desires and feelings, a person sets the limits of what is permissible in his actions and determines what is unacceptable - this is moral freedom. Saints of all times, who shone in various lands, amazed, for example, their tormentors with the freedom of their own choice, which their conscience dictated. For conscience is an internal judgment of oneself, a person’s moral consciousness, which encourages a person to make a conscious choice in favor of good.
At present, the pendulum of history, after a long hundred-year cycle, is again beginning to move towards the recognition of Christian morality.
The spiritual and moral basis of man is a subject of study not only by philosophers and theologians. Many social reformers, public figures, as well as well-known politicians and ideologists actively sought to comprehend the category of morality in order to create an “ideal”, i.e. a truly moral human society.
Not many people today know that the main document on morality in the United States called the Jefferson Bible or “The Life and Moral Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth” of 1895, which formed the basis of the “Declaration of Independence”, is a set of moral principles that underlie American ideology and philosophy. This moral code was copied from the Gospel, but not verbatim, but rationally revised with the elimination of all spiritual artifacts confirming the divine-human nature of the Savior. Jefferson's Bible affirms the priorities of social principles and rational-pragmatic relationships over spiritual ones. Jesus Christ, according to Jefferson and according to Americans, respectively, is not God at all, but an ordinary socially concerned, deeply moral “man” who cares about morality, social justice, equality and freedom.
In our country they also tried to create an ideal society. After the revolution, the Christian moral code was replaced by a revolutionary one, in which everything that was beneficial to the proletariat, but ultimately to its vanguard - the party, was declared moral. Even blood was justified in such a morality. Millions of people were sacrificed to this morality. However, such an anti-human moral code could not exist openly for long and - when it did its job, most of those not pleasing to the party were killed or put in camps, exiled - then the revolutionary code was replaced by the moral code of the builder of communism. This is another example related to the use of the gospel principles of morality, which inspired Soviet people to outstanding feats and social achievements for decades.
American and Soviet doctrines, forming a code of morality, lost God as the Primary Source of morality itself. How can one not recall the words of a character in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel that “if there is no God, everything is permitted.” Today we will not talk about the moral values ​​of Americans, who throughout their history have carried out military invasions (and not only) in many countries of the world. We know what happened to the Soviet Union.
At present, morality is the main way to achieve true spirituality and perhaps the only guarantor of preserving the foundations of the human personality from final destruction by egoism, which so often dominates relations between people.
Often conversations about morality irritate people: many are now concerned about other issues. In the public consciousness, other values ​​come first - benefit, profit. On the one hand, freedom must be a condition for a moral act; on the other hand, freedom is a condition for an immoral act. However, any freedom ends where it affects and violates the rights of others.
Militant propaganda of rudeness, sacrilege and shamelessness, cynically propagated by a group of people far from morality and morality, is aimed primarily at the destruction of traditional Russian spiritual, family, and human values, leading to the moral degradation of society. This provokes new mockery, bullying, trampling of holy places, desecration of spiritual values.
On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the revolutions in Russia, many compatriots were seriously touched by the film “Matilda”. State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya spoke about the flurry of appeals that she received on this matter, and not only from Orthodox believers in Russia. The abbot and inhabitants of the Orthodox monastery in the USA, Muslims from Dagestan, sent their petitions and appeals. Tens of thousands of people of different faiths consider it immoral that in a film made with taxpayers' money, the main role of our Orthodox saint, Emperor Nicholas II, is played by a German porn actor, although he himself denies this fact, and in the role of the Empress, also a foreigner representing British alternative culture.
Chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, Bishop Tikhon of Yegoryevsk, is convinced that “artistic fiction should in no case be deception.” Vladyka Tikhon considers it a very good sign that “a considerable number of... compatriots today... consider it important for themselves to stand up for the honor of their history, for the honor of their great and small fellow citizens who have long since passed into eternity...”. So that in the minds of viewers the history of the royal family does not remain a monstrous myth of film scriptwriters and producers, caring Russians posted billboards with quotes from the correspondence of the holy royal martyrs, dedicated to love, marriage and family happiness, quotes from the personal diary of the empress and her letters to her husband. Thousands of similar leaflets have been printed and will be distributed by volunteers to spectators across the country. Isn't this a manifestation of the morality of our contemporaries?
Russian people have always solved the problem handed down to them from time immemorial: “How to live in order to be holy?”
Perhaps we will find the answer in the ark with the relics of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church, which now resides in the Yeisk diocese. Today all participants in the Readings have the opportunity to venerate this shrine.
The vicissitudes of life, especially of the newly glorified Russian saints, close to us in time, could form the basis of wonderful works of art for children and youth. The camps, exile, the internal struggle of these people - all this is an inexhaustible source for the creation of heroic images, so necessary for the younger generation. Here we can cite the lives of such saints as Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna Romanova, who in 1918 was thrown into a mine, doomed to death, wounded, she provided assistance to people suffering with her.

An example from another series is the ascetic life of St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), professor of surgery, laureate of the State Stalin Prize, author of a textbook on purulent surgery, who, in the most difficult years, when one could pay for one’s faith with one’s life, took holy orders in 1921, then becomes a bishop. He suffered what any Russian Orthodox bishop of that time experienced: reproach, prison, camps, exile, expulsion, torture. In 1941, while in exile after many years in the camps, Saint Luke turned to the government with a request to send him to work in a hospital as a surgeon, and throughout the war he worked in Krasnoyarsk hospitals, performing the most complex operations and saving the most hopeless wounded. At the end of the war, he was even awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War.” After the war, the saint was completely blind, but continued to serve and gave consultations to doctors. He was buried in the city of Simferopol. Despite numerous church publications, his feat remains unknown to most of our adult compatriots, especially to youth.

And, of course, one cannot ignore the life of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of All-Russia. It is no coincidence that his name tops the list of new martyrs and confessors of Russia. He demonstrated to the highest degree the feat of confession (a confessor is a Christian who endured torture for Christ, but for some reason was not executed). In the most difficult years, he took upon himself the burden of the High Priesthood and carried it unblemished through all the trials and hardships.
Today there are those who want to assure that “religion is a commercial project.” Well, people who are firmly committed to lying will lie in the face of any facts. But the feat of the new martyrs makes this lie obvious.
No country will be able to survive on any of the power of ultra-modern technologies and weapons if its people, even latently, do not live in the faith that our Russian Church established in them and supported even in the most brutal times of godlessness!
Morality is always closely related to religion. Faith contains a powerful moral charge, since, firstly, a person subordinates his behavior to the will of God, i.e. accustoms himself to obedience; secondly, through his own actions, external appearance and internal abilities, he strives to become like God and, to some extent, is transformed.
In modern Russia, the issue of reviving spiritual and moral values ​​is being resolved at the state level. There are youth structures, public associations that create modern concepts, projects, and programs of spiritual and moral content for young people. The most important condition for achieving high results on this path, according to many, is the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in this matter.
For example, this summer, a cleric of our diocese took part in a multi-day bicycle trip, covering about two hundred kilometers on bicycles with teenagers. The daily setting up of a tent camp in a new place, testing the heat in the steppe, cooking food exclusively over a fire and informal communication with the priest served the youth as a spiritual exercise that in a short time raised the level of their moral behavior to the height of self-sacrifice. This is not an isolated example when priests, by their personal example, instill and preserve the moral immunity of the younger generation, so that it does not turn out that a person has a cross on his chest, but a zero in his soul. It is impossible to cultivate morality without faith.
Kuban is actively strengthening its position in the field of moral education. Teachers and educators, librarians and Cossack mentors lay the main guidelines in children's souls - eternal values ​​that do not age, do not burn out, do not drown - this is the attitude towards elders and towards the Fatherland, goodness, conscience, truth, faith, Love.
An 8th grade student at one of the Kuban schools, Dmitry Likhmanyuk, wrote in his essay-reflection on morality: “I see Kuban as a solidary society. A society where the fate of some people is not indifferent to other people, where help and support of fellow citizens is the norm in relations between people. I see Kuban as a society where people are able to unite to solve common problems on their own, and not under coercion or orders.”
The state and the Church have common goals, and, first of all, the good of society and each person. The state declared the interests of the individual to be the main priority and enshrined this postulate in the Constitution of our country. Without touching on the political side, the Church cares about the same thing. The return of the Orthodox faith, and therefore morality, freedom, and family, to the generation of the 21st century will help Russia resist global norms of immorality and corrupt morality.

The material published below is the report “The Foundation of Traditional Values ​​and the Core of Morality,” read by Mikhail Khasminsky at the 18th regional Christmas readings in Magadan, the theme of which this year is “Moral Values ​​and the Future of Humanity.”

Mikhail Igorevich Khasminsky – head of the Center for Crisis Psychology at the Patriarchal Metochion - the Church of the Resurrection of Christ on Semenovskaya (Moscow), assistant rector of the metochion; member of the Public Council of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (FSIN); member of the scientific advisory council of the Moscow Interregional Investigation Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation; member of the working group of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the development of the Far East.

I would like to talk about the future of humanity from the point of view of a practicing crisis psychologist. Agree that the future of humanity directly depends on how our children live, because they are our future.

Education and upbringing

Schools, colleges, universities - all these institutions are called “educational”. The question is what is meant by education. Nowadays this is understood mainly as the transfer of a certain amount of knowledge, but not education.

Education, if we consider this word etymologically, is the giving of an image. And not just any image, but the image of God. This is done both with the help of knowledge and with the help of education - that is, it is a complex action in which any part cannot be isolated or discarded. I can confirm this with the words of famous philosophers: for example, the French writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote: “To those who have not comprehended the science of good, every other science brings harm.” He is echoed by Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, our great scientist, saying that “knowledge without education is a sword in the hands of a madman.” And Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov simply wrote: “Not the sum of knowledge, but the correct way of thinking and moral education - this is the goal of education.”

Everything is obvious, but I’ll explain it with a few more examples. Everyone has probably heard about the rapist Chikatilo, whose name even became a household name. So he had three (!) higher educations (one of them incomplete) and one specialized secondary education: he graduated from the College of Communications, then entered MIIT, studied two courses there, and then graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Rostov University and the University of Marxism-Leninism at Pedagogical Institute. He worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature and a teacher at a boarding school.

Simply endowing young people with a certain amount of knowledge is not education in the full sense of the word

Another example: Jack the Ripper in England was the most famous and skillful and educated surgeon at that time. And in literary classics we find such examples. Here, in particular, is the evil genius Professor Moriarty from Conan Doyle: a very educated and cultured person. By the way, researchers suggest that Moriarty had a real prototype in the person of Professor Walter Lloyd McLarens, who taught mathematics at Oxford at the end of the 19th century

So, equipping young people with certain knowledge (not to mention the fact that modern graduates are simply trained to take the Unified State Exam) is, unfortunately, not education in its full sense. A person can have a higher education, but not have the image of God. If this continues in education, then the future of humanity is very sad, because then society will be composed of individuals without a core, without content, without the image of God.

Religion as the basis of morality and law

I would like to ask: what’s wrong with suicide? We are fighting this phenomenon, we want to reduce the number of suicides among minors, but what’s bad about it? Let's remember that in Ancient Rome suicide was a completely respected act, which was not only not condemned, but was even considered valor. And of course, the ancient Romans did not fight it. Why are we fighting this phenomenon now? We are fighting because when Christianity came to Rome, the commandments, and in particular the commandment "thou shalt not kill", began to determine people’s worldview, their behavior, their attitude, their morals and ethics. Including attitudes towards suicide. It was the religious basis that began to determine the moral state of society and the attitude towards this or that phenomenon.

The same, of course, can be said about killing another person. If a person commits the murder of another, not believing either in eternal life or in the fact that he will have to answer before God for this act - for example, he kills in order to get a lot of money and use it for the rest of his life - then from the point of view of a non-religious person, what what's wrong with that? Maybe it’s just (as we sometimes pretend) natural selection. This is how a person understands the world: “Why can’t I kill if I’m stronger? The right of the strong! Darwin rules."

But you cannot kill because it is a violation of the commandment. If a person understands that the one he wants to kill has an immortal soul and a priceless life given by God Himself, that after his death he will meet with the innocently murdered and that the most impartial Judgment for the innocently murdered person will inevitably await him, then he builds his attitude towards this action based on such an idea. And here it is clear why murder is a huge sin.

Further. Let's take robbery: why is it impossible, for example, to take something from another, to steal? What if you are stronger? It is impossible because it is a violation of the commandment "thou shalt not steal", this also has a religious basis. We remove the foundation - and in general it becomes unclear why this cannot be done.

Or corruption, for example, which everyone is now so passionately fighting. Why can’t you get something bypassing the law, but for your own money and, moreover, given at your own request? Moreover, sometimes it happens that a corrupt official can even carry out some useful work from a practical point of view: let’s say he didn’t pass some important document, but he was given the thumbs up, and he passed it. From a secular point of view, this is something that may not be necessary to fight. But this is something that must be fought against, because underneath this fight there is a religious basis, which determines the moral basis.

And in general, all law (the system of generally binding legal norms established by the state) came from the commandments of the main Abrahamic faiths. If we take the Criminal Code, we can see that this is practically an expanded interpretation of the last six commandments from the Decalogue (10 commandments given by God to Moses).

Let's consider such an act as cheating on one's spouse. It is not punishable by law, at least in our country, but it is condemned. And why? If, for example, someone cheated on his wife with a neighbor, and she, accordingly, cheated on her husband, and no one found out about it? It’s good for the man, and it’s good for the neighbor, too, so, strictly speaking, what’s wrong with that? No one killed anyone, did not cause damage to the state, everyone is alive and happy. But nevertheless, it is morally reprehensible. Why? Because this is again rooted in a religious basis: the commandment "don't fornicate". And if we recognize “do not fornicate,” then we recognize everything that follows from here. If we don’t admit it, then everything that follows loses its meaning and becomes completely incomprehensible to our students. And we won’t be able to explain this to them! We will not be able to raise them into moral people who understand these roots. And I will say more: if they are not moral, then most likely, unfortunately, they will be moral monsters.

They may object to me: in the Soviet Union there was no religious foundation, but at the same time the people were highly moral, and I have to agree with this. But there is a very simple explanation: for centuries we have been a Christian country, and for many generations people raised their children and grandchildren accordingly. And just as a tree with its roots cut off does not die immediately, when this religious foundation was gone, people continued to educate the younger generation in an essentially Christian spirit.

What can the destruction of a religious foundation lead to?

It is almost impossible to explain why something cannot be done without explaining the religious basis.

But the time has come when this inertia of centuries-old Christian traditions ended. And now we see that the same ossification begins, examples of which we see both on social networks and in real life, in the pseudo- and counterculture that surrounds us. All these things are closely interconnected! At the same time, it is almost impossible to explain to a child why this or that cannot be done without explaining the religious basis. Thanks to modern technology, our children already live in a different world. Try, from a secular point of view, to explain to the egoistic consumer why one must respect one’s father and mother. By the way, this also worries us all. If a child has no authority, no basis, no God, then why should he, strictly speaking, limit himself in consumption for the sake of his aged parents, and not send them to a boarding school (nursing home) to wait for the next fire? There is, I believe, no secular explanation here. Is it just that we didn’t do this to our parents? Just because we raised him that way? This is not an explanation. Because, let’s say, until adolescence you, as parents, are in authority, and then you are no longer in authority, others are already in authority.

Pyramid without a core, or Faulty operating system

So, if a person does not have this correct religious foundation, then, unfortunately, the entire educational process will be doomed. I sometimes compare it to a children's pyramid. The pyramid, as everyone has probably noticed, is often assembled incorrectly by small children - simply by placing rings on top of one another, but the most important thing in it is the base and the core. And if there is no religious basis from which this moral core grows, then most likely the pyramid will be assembled incorrectly, crookedly, and perhaps there will be no possibility of reassembling it correctly.

If we are talking about metaphors, then I would like to compare education with a computer operating system. We all have computers, and we imagine that if the operating system malfunctions, then, accordingly, all programs, all applications will work poorly. It’s the same in a person: if the moral system works poorly, then everything we teach him will also work, alas, poorly, and this will not necessarily manifest itself now, it can manifest itself at other stages of life. Moreover, a faulty operating system can even break the entire computer. And we see this when a person commits a crime or commits suicide: mental programs come into conflict with each other, that is, the person cannot understand the situation and cannot behave correctly, he does not have the skills for this. And a person, like a computer, “breaks down”.

“The little son came to his father, and the little one asked:
"What is good and what is bad?""

I would also like to draw attention to the fact that we ourselves often broadcast very strange things to our children. In general, what is good and what is bad is the first, vital thing that a father taught his son from ancient times. This, by the way, was reflected in the famous poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky. And my father said unequivocally: this is bad, but this is good. And - what is important - he proved his words with everyday example. That is, I lived like that myself!

Absurd: we tell children that suicide is bad, but at the same time we do not object to abortion as against murder

We constantly talk about the value of human life. And the value of life is a category that is also determined religiously. Life is priceless, it is a gift. Who gives this gift? God gives. This means that God will ask us for this life - for this priceless gift of His. And it is clear that if there is an understanding of this, as well as the fact that the soul is eternal, then doing disgusting things, and even more so ending, for example, committing suicide or killing a person, becomes simply unnatural.

But if the commandments are not the foundation, then the result is often absurd. We tell children that suicide is bad, that killing is terrible, implying that life has the highest value. But at the same time, we do not object to abortion publicly and clearly as we do against murder. And this is the paradox: here human life is important, we are talking about its value, about its preservation, even when a person himself is ready to give it up (because, again, his “operating system” is broken), but at the same time For some reason we ignore the importance of the life of a very small unborn person. How so?! How can children understand that life is valuable if there are so many abortions in society and they sometimes know that their mother had an abortion before him? How can a child then talk about the value of human life?! This is a very important point. After all, almost always the value of human life, the attitude towards one’s own soul determines a person’s behavior.

Gold in exchange for glass

The value of life is determined by the religious positioning of the individual, but our children do not have this!

Speaking about the causes of suicidal behavior, I would like to give one more metaphor. Everyone remembers the story when Europeans, having arrived on the American continent, exchanged gold from the indigenous inhabitants for glass beads. And, of course, it was an unequal exchange, now we understand this very well. And we know that then almost all of the Indians were destroyed, that is, not only was their precious metal taken away, but they themselves were killed - for example, in return they were given a blanket infected with smallpox, and so on. This was real genocide. But the Indians could have resisted! Could they? Why did they need to exchange gold for some pathetic pieces of glass? Of course they could, but their problem was that they didn't realize that these attractive pieces of glass were actually just processed cheap quartz sand, soda and limestone. And at the same time, they did not understand the price of what they had in abundance, that is, the price of gold. That is why they agreed to such an unequal exchange. And this begs the question: isn’t the same thing happening today, when children easily exchange their own priceless lives for some strange promises of scum about a country of blue whales, a colony, and so on? Children destroy and do not value their lives, do not appreciate the joy of every day. And it is completely logical that such children, not having an integral personality structure, living in a fragmented selfish consciousness, challenge both the Creator and all of us. And with this challenge they directly prove that the value of life is determined by the religious positioning of the individual, which they do not have.

I have seen hundreds of people who want to kill themselves, but I have never seen mentally healthy and truly (I emphasize: truly) Orthodox or Muslims attempt suicide. I am not making the data absolute; I admit that my colleagues may have had such cases, but I am sure that these cases are simply isolated.

What distinguishes “healthy” regions from “sick” regions

We are talking about the prevention of destructive behavior in minors, we are looking for what could reduce the level of such behavior by at least a few percent per year - this year we have 15% fewer suicides than last year (all age categories in general), and this is already an achievement. And I can give a recipe on how to significantly reduce not only suicide, but also solve the issue of demographic security, and much more.

And I can prove this with Rosstat data, which is presented in this diagram. It shows suicide rates in the Far East, Siberia and Ingushetia and Dagestan (calculated as the number of suicides per 100,000 population). It is striking that the difference is 15–30 times between the Far Eastern region (Jewish Autonomous Region) and Ingushetia and Dagestan. How can this colossal difference be explained? Neither economic nor social reasons can explain this. Thus, in the Far East there cannot be an economic situation 25 times worse than in Ingushetia. Also, there cannot be such a colossal difference either in the number of psychologists in schools, of course, or in the number of mentally ill people, or in the quality of psychiatric care. Well, there can’t be 25 times more mentally ill people in the Far East than in Ingushetia! The only, in my opinion, real explanation for this phenomenon can be that in the Caucasus there is a traditional society that structures a person and gives specific answers to all questions. It also clearly positions what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in society, based, again, on Abrahamic traditional Islam. And simply belonging to religious roots and following certain laws reduces the amount of suicidal behavior tenfold.

I will also note that in the more traditional society of these regions there are completely no orphanages or boarding schools for the elderly (although I was told that there are boarding schools there, but only for Russians, to our shame), that various types of addictions are a much smaller problem there ( alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc.), if taken per 100,000 people. There is a higher percentage of people actively involved in sports, but there’s nothing to even say about having many children. The family institution is much stronger there: in exactly the same proportion as suicides, there are fewer divorces than in the Far East. It turns out how belonging to traditional values ​​radically changes the situation! And if we raise our children in our traditions, then we will also greatly reduce the number of tragedies.

Why does my soul hurt?

I would like to remember the founder of suicidology, Emile Durkheim, a famous French sociologist and philosopher, who said: “Morality is a mandatory minimum and a severe necessity, it is our daily bread, without which societies cannot live.” But morality, as we see, cannot develop and exist on its own, without religious roots.

Morality based on consumption cannot exist, because a person cannot be completely satisfied. And here I would like to quote another famous person - the writer Ernest Hemingway. He said one thing about material needs that, in my opinion, is deeply psychological, the confirmation of which we can easily see in our hearts:

“Give a person what he needs, and he will want convenience. Provide him with amenities - he will strive for luxury. Shower him with luxury - he will begin to sigh for the exquisite. Let him receive the exquisite - he will crave madness. Give him everything he wants, and he will complain that he was deceived and that he did not get what he wanted.”

These are very wise words.

In principle, you cannot be satisfied with material things! Because the soul is immaterial and requires something completely different

In principle, a person cannot be satisfied with something material! Because the soul is immaterial. It requires a completely different diet! And when a person cannot be satisfied with something, he falls into so-called frustration. He cannot achieve something, and he no longer likes the reality around him. And he has such, for example, ways out: to go into gambling addiction, that is, into some illusory world where he can achieve anything. Or go into a drug frenzy or another kind of destructive behavior. But at the same time, without thinking about the soul, that is, without satisfying the true needs that can correct the situation. But you can’t satisfy those needs that you yourself don’t know about, that you don’t feel!

And here’s what’s interesting: when you ask people in a state of crisis about their well-being, almost everyone, with very rare exceptions, says that their soul hurts. That is, they still feel the soul, understanding the localization of pain, when it hurts terribly. But at the same time, many do not go to the Church, this hospital of souls, but often try to knock out the “wedge with wedge” of consumption, entertainment, addictions and other destructive actions, which does not solve the problem itself, but usually leads to tragedies.

But let's see why the soul hurts.

I think no one will argue that anger sometimes leads to human destruction—internal destruction. And everyone knows very well that anger can lead to murder or suicide. Can fornication lead to suicide? Of course it can. Very often, betrayal - when someone was cheated on or the person himself cheated on them - leads to either murder, or suicide, or alcoholism, or drug addiction. Can love of money lead to murder? Yes, and we know a lot of examples of this. What about hatred? Of course, there is no need to even explain here. Dejection? Yes. Pride? Certainly. And even gluttony. Maybe? Maybe. Question: what is this listed here? Anger, hatred, fornication, love of money, gluttony - these are passions! Human passions, long described in ascetic literature. Previously, this was explained to children from a very young age and made it clear that these passions must be fought, and they were taught exactly how. And now how many people even know that passions must be fought and that passions destroy the personality and soul? On the contrary, passion is often presented as the norm. So how can you fight a disease that you do not perceive as a disease?!

Who is guilty?..

Unfortunately, it's our fault. It is our fault that our children suffer, that they kill themselves, that they get divorced (in 70% of cases on average in the country). All this happens because spiritual weeds grow in the souls of our children, and the children do not even understand that these weeds need to be pulled out before they grow into an impenetrable thicket. And this also relates not only to their future, but also to our own future. Of course, the lack of traditional values ​​in upbringing, as we discussed above, leads to destructive actions. Of course, behavior is often determined by atheistic ideas about life after death, namely the absence of such ideas. Like, why be afraid to live by the rules? “We only live once! You have to try everything! Do what you want!" You can even kill - there are no brakes, you won’t have to answer, and after death nothing will happen.

There is an imposition of consumer and hedonistic philosophy instead of traditional forms. But we understand where consumer philosophy comes from. It is profitable to turn people into consumers so that they buy, buy and buy. Consumers are the fuel of the economy. But this is not beneficial for the person himself! And it is not profitable to make consumers out of our children. Here we have completely different interests from producers of goods and services.

Consumerism will take over children if they do not have a religious understanding of life, the experience of Christian life

Consumerism will take over our children if they do not have an alternative religious understanding, an experience of Christian life. And they won't have it if we don't teach it to them. And for this, we must live like this ourselves and show them a positive example, and not the one they can see on the Internet. It is difficult, it is complicated, but there is something for parents, teachers, and officials to become different for.

We may not give enough material goods, but we must give the child much more - the traditional hierarchy of meanings. We must explain from the point of view of our traditional culture why a person lives, why family life is needed, why one needs to change oneself. So far, alas, children do not receive answers to these questions. We explain very little to children. Of course, we want children to know meaning: the meaning of life, and the meaning of creating a family and raising them; so that they understand the meaning of suffering and correctly determine their attitude towards work and the country. And we need to give this religious core, this accumulated experience of all past generations who also went through various crises. We went through crises in the family, experienced the loss of loved ones - and moved forward; they lived when they didn’t want to live, when there was war, when there was famine... They knew how to relate to all this in order to overcome it! And they overcame it. We ourselves, our existence is evidence that they overcame this.

So, only a religious basis allows one to cope with the crises that are inevitable in the life of every person. It gives the concept of the absolute authority of God, which is higher than momentary human morality, based on nothing.

I often visit various youth audiences. And when you ask what love is, usually everyone simply answers that love is a feeling. Almost no one says that this is creation, that this is compassion, that this is sacrifice. But sacrifice is everything! This is when a person wants not to take, but to give. Why do most divorces happen? Because a girl is raised as a princess and she is used to taking, and a boy is raised the same way, and then they join into a family, and each wants to take more from the other than to give. Naturally, this leads to divorce. What was a family built on before? On sacrifice. Just to do something for free for a loved one, so that he feels good. And the other did the same, because he was raised the same way.

And in general, everything that moved our country, and everything that can determine our future, is and was determined by sacrifice, bestowal, and not by selfishness and consumerism. This is not only family, but also patriotism (if there is no sacrifice, then who will go to defend the country? For what?), it is both work and creativity (for it is impossible to make a masterpiece for money). And in general, creative development is always a return. And, of course, children should understand this.

...and what to do?

The great Ivan Aksakov said: “Progress that denies God ultimately becomes regression, civilization ends in savagery, freedom in despotism and slavery. Having taken off the image of God, man will inevitably take off the human image and become jealous of the bestial image.”

And when you see satanic symbolism in death groups, when you hear children swearing, learn about children’s atrocities against each other, read about violence and blood, then know that they simply stripped off the image of God and exchanged it for the image of an animal.

And let's agree that even now we are not trying to fully return the image of God to children by educating them. We look for extremes in tragedies, think about secondary things, without paying enough attention to the main problem.

Let me return to the pyramid metaphor. Let's imagine: a pyramid with or without a rod. If there is no rod, then just hit this structure with your fingernail - and everything will fall apart, which we actually see more and more often when the next tragedies happen.

In conclusion, I would like to quote the words of Blessed Augustine of Hippo - a great scientist, saint, ascetic, who himself made many mistakes in life, but nevertheless acquired a Christian core and was able to become the father of the Church: “If God is in first place, then everything else will be in his own."

So let's pay close attention to this and think about what exactly we can do for our children, who have a priceless soul, and we must nourish it with the life-giving energy of love and beneficial knowledge, and not with formal Unified State Examinations, scores and not with a consumerist and hedonistic attitude to life, which can only lead to suffering and disaster.

will be discussed by the participants of the Christmas readings in Syktyvkar

The third regional educational Christmas readings began their work in Syktyvkar on Wednesday. The grand opening of the forum took place on the morning of November 22 in the concert hall of the Gymnasium of Arts under the head of Komi named after Yuri Spiridonov. An exhibition of creative works by participants in the regional stage of the international children's creativity competition “The Beauty of God's World” opened in the foyer.

Opening the forum, Archbishop Pitirim of Syktyvkar and Komi-Zyryan stated that it is the spiritual morality of the Russian people that saves the world from the end of the world. The topic of discussion for participants in the readings will be moral values, the future of humanity, modern culture and youth education.

Soloist of the Komi Opera and Ballet Theater Nadezhda Batalova performed a song based on the poems of Archbishop Pitirim. The composition is an excerpt from the musical and literary work “Life Plus Love,” dedicated to the royal family. Then the bishop himself took the floor. The Archbishop noted the importance of the stated topics:

– This is very true: to raise the alarm on spiritual security in order, as Patriarch Kirill says, to prevent the end of the world.

Pitirim then read one of his poems, after which he noted the active work with spirituality on the part of the Komi Ministry of National Policy, awarding Minister Galina Gabusheva a diocesan medal.

“Over the years, we, together with the diocese, have held many events aimed at the spiritual and moral improvement of our society and youth, and many present in this hall are participants in these events,” noted Galina Gabusheva, reading out a greeting to the meeting participants from the head of the region, Sergei Gaplikov.

Then there was an award ceremony for the winners of the republican stage of the annual All-Russian competition in the field of pedagogy, education and work with children and youth “For the moral feat of a teacher” in 2017 and the winners of the regional stage of the international children's creativity competition “The Beauty of God's World”.

As part of the Christmas readings, meetings of conferences, sections and round tables will be held, at which it is planned to discuss the most important issues of spiritual and moral upbringing and education, strengthening the value foundations of life, features of working with youth and media representatives, the social service of the church, the tasks of interaction between the church and the state in various areas of public life.

The readings will end on November 24 with “Parliamentary meetings”, which will raise issues of interaction between church organizations, government bodies and social departments in missionary service and social services for the population of the Far North, as well as the joint work of the church and the state as a whole.

The regional stage precedes the International Christmas Educational Readings, which have traditionally been held in Moscow for 25 years. This is a kind of church forum in the field of education and spiritual and moral enlightenment. The theme of moral values ​​and the future of humanity was chosen by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'.

Arthur ARTEEV

Photo by Dmitry NAPALKOV

The class hour is held with the aim of familiarizing students with the biblical history of Christmas, expanding knowledge about the origins of the Christmas holiday, getting to know the value guidelines in human life, creating conditions for the formation of socially significant personal qualities and value orientations in children, and nurturing a spiritual and moral personality.

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"Moral values ​​and the future of Russia."

Open class hour in grade 5 “B” as part of Christmas readings.

Objectives of the event:

Educational: familiarizing students with the biblical history of Christmas, expanding knowledge about the origins of the Christmas holiday, becoming familiar with value guidelines in human life;

Developmental: development of cognitive abilities, interpersonal communication skills, cognitive activity of students; development of mental functions of students: thinking, emotions, attention, will, memory; formation of self-control skills;

Educational:create conditions for the formation of socially significant personal qualities and value orientations in children, promote the education of a spiritual and moral personality, and provide an opportunity for the development of a culture of relationships.

Required equipment and materials:

• Multimedia installation
• Video “Children about Christmas”
• Video "Nativity of Christ" cartoon
• Phonograms of the song “On the Road to Goodness”, musical composition “Silent Night”
• Bible
• Pens, sheets of paper
• Cards for the game “Values ​​of Life”
• Cards for the game “Roads of Life”

Preparation:

• Children's performances (poems and parables).

Progress of the event

1. Emotional mood - motivation (5min)

Video "Children about Christmas"

Conversation with children.

- What is "Christmas"? What does this holiday mean to you?

1. Main part.

Conversation with a star

Boy : You until dawn
In the sky, little star, you are burning!
And when I go to bed,
You're blinking at me again.
Listen, little star, tell me,
Is it good to live in heaven?

Star : You're still just a baby:
You play during the day, you sleep at night
And you know little about God -
What mom said.
But I will answer you:
There is eternal joy in heaven.

Boy: Star, you have been around for many years
You shine for people on earth.
I'll ask you a question:
How was Christ born into the world?

Star: Oh, I remember everything perfectly!
That star, my sister,
I told everyone,
That He came to Bethlehem.
It was so long ago,
But I remember this night:
We, the heavenly bodies,
Shined brighter that night
And furtively, through the cracks,
They looked at the King of kings.
The angels sang wonderfully,
Don't forget this song
Unearthly voices...
If only you could hear for yourself!

Boy : I'm not a star, I'm a boy
And I'm not even old enough...
You know, star, it’s a shame -
I didn't see anything:
No Savior, no heaven,
I haven’t been to Bethlehem either.
I would become a star like you
I could see everything from above!

Star : Head up, baby,
After all, you are sad in vain.
You are happier than many stars:
Christ is next to you!

2. Teacher’s story about the Biblical origins of the holiday “Christmas”(7 min).

Christmas is not just a holiday when gifts are given, it is the beginning of a new era, marked by the coming of God to us on earth to save us from evil, illness, death and give us eternal life. Let's listen to the story of the birth of Jesus, which is recorded in the most ancient book - the Bible.

Reading a passage from the Bible: Matthew 1:18-25 with teacher's comments.

The birth of Jesus Christ was like this:
upon the betrothal of His Mother Mary to Joseph,
before they came together,
It turned out that She was pregnant with the Holy Spirit.

Joseph is her husband,
being righteous and not wanting to make Her public,
wanted to secretly let her go.

But when he thought about it, -
behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream
and said: Joseph, son of David!
do not be afraid to accept Mary your wife,
for that which is born in Her is of the Holy Spirit;

will give birth to a Son,
and you shall call His name Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins.

And all this happened
that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled,
who says:

behold, the Virgin is with child and gives birth to a Son,
and they will call His name Immanuel,
which means: God is with us.

Getting up from sleep,
Joseph did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him,
and he took his wife, and did not know her,
How Finally She gave birth to Her firstborn Son,
and he called His name Jesus.

1. Watching the cartoon “The Nativity of Christ”(5 minutes).
2. A conversation about why Jesus was born? (2 minutes)

This little boy grew up and gave His life for each of us. When he walked across our land, He healed, resurrected, wiped away tears and gave people hope.

In the Bible we read (John 3:16): “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1. Reading poems by students ( 5 minutes)

• Long gone out in the winter darkness
  Eastern star,
  But not forgotten on earth
  Birth of Christ.
  Like preaching love
  And the truth of the Divine,
  God was born again every year
  For the Christmas holiday

Preserving moral values, remembering every year the birth of Jesus, God, the savior, is our task. Our future, the future of our entire country, Russia, depends on what principles we follow in life. People, rejecting spiritual and moral values, risk living in a society where evil, theft, betrayal, and selfishness reign. What kind of society would we like to live in? Society, country - it's you and me. If you want to change the world, start with yourself.

Game "Moral Values"

On the board are cards with life values, real and false. Choose those that the guys would like to live by; false ones are removed. The choice is made frontally: the teacher touches a card with some value, the children clap if they agree to live by it, stomp if not.

1. Game “Chance and Choice” (6 min).

Divide into groups of 4 people (2 desks). Choose a card with a situation and determine what chance life sends, and decide whether to use this chance.
You have money, and the first spring flowers are being sold on the corner.
Your classmate came with tear-stained eyes.
A baby stands alone in the middle of the street.
You see a lady sitting in the first row on a broken chair.
During the lesson, a classmate offended the teacher.
Something falls from the bag of the person in front.
A lost puppy with a broken leash is running around the yard.
You found a cell phone in the school hallway.
Your little sister or brother broke your toy.

1. Parable about a wise man and his disciple (2 min).Prepared students tell the story (by role).

The sage and the disciple were sitting at the gates of their city. A traveler comes up and asks: “What kind of people live in this city?” “Who lives where you came from?” - asks the sage. “Oh, rude, evil, unkind people,” the traveler replies. “You will see the same thing here,” answered the sage.

After some time, another traveler came up and also asked what kind of people were in this city. “Who lives where you came from?” - asked the sage.

“Wonderful people, kind and sympathetic,” answered the traveler. “Here you will find the same ones,” said the sage.

“Why did you tell one that bad people live here, and the other – good people?” - the student asked the sage.

The sage replied: “There are good people and bad people everywhere. It’s just that everyone finds only what they know how to look for – good or evil.”

1. Final game “Road of Good” (5 min)

Each person has a sheet of paper on their desk; students use a marker to trace their palm and write their name on it in the center. And then it turns onsong "Dear Goodness".While it is playing, the children pass around a piece of paper with their name, when the song is interrupted, the passing of the sheets stops and the students write words of wishes on their fingers, then the song continues and they pass the sheets around again. At the end of the song, the leaves return to their owners.

1. Final words from the teacher (1 min).

The Nativity of Christ is a holiday, the meaning of which is to understand what the born baby Jesus did for humanity. He was born to show his boundless love for people. The grown baby - God - gave his life on the cross for each of us, so that we could become better people and have hope for eternity.

This holiday teaches us to believe, educates our hearts, so that we learn to forgive, sympathize, understand each other, tolerate the shortcomings of others - in a word, so that we learn to love the people around us.