Your Beatitude,
Your Eminences,
Your Excellency, Mr. Ambassador,
Honourable and beloved Consul Generals,
Brethren and children in the Lord,

We are gathered here today, to pray for the unjust loss of our children and brothers in the city of Beslan in Ossetia, that happened a few days ago, as the Holy Scripture commands “to pray for the dead” (2Mac.12:44). Children who were innocent and had no trace of evil in them, young students together with their teachers and parents, were grabbed by death in a matter of seconds by unlawful and bloodthirsty men who dared to demand their alleged rights through the blood of unsuspecting souls, oblivious of any responsibility. Dreams and hopes, plans for the future, noble visions and expectations fell apart in ruins. “Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling” of the sons and daughters of my people (Is. 22:4), says Russia with a bitter taste in her mouth. And the entire Most Holy Orthodox Church in the whole world participates in this bitter mourning and the heavy bereavement, by shading tears and beating her breast and observing a great mourning (Sir. 38: 16-18) according to the value of the victims. We all sympathize with His Beatitude Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, beloved brother and concelebrant Alexei, spiritual father of those murdered and we condole wholeheartedly His Excellency President Vladimir Poutin, who bears the heavy weight of the injustice and murder of so many innocent citizens, young in age. We are each members of the one Body of Christ and our sorrow and pain are common.

The murderous killers and terrorists ignore the Lord’s command: “Thou shalt not kill” and the even more particular command: “the innocent and righteous slay thou not” (Ex. 23: 7). They disregard the indirect feeling of mercy and justice. They totally ignore all the anger that the entire sensible human kind is feeling for them. For this reason, “their hands are full of blood” (Is. 1:15), blood that is entirely innocent and defenceless, blood that is calling out to God from the earth of Beslan. Who drove them to this cruel murder? The blindness of their souls, their demented fanaticism and the distortion of the religious values, which they claim to adhere to. But there is no religion that blesses terrorism, the blind violence, the crime, the killing of the innocent, and no patriotism or racial interest relieves of the responsibility of the atrocious crime those who committed these acts. Let them answer to the Righteous Judge for this unheard villainous deed that they have dared.

We, however, who believe in Christ, the Righteous, the Master of Life and Resurrection, let us bend our knees in prayer so that the bones of the innocent victims of Ossetia might rise as herbs and their souls might find their place among those poor and innocent that had been slaughtered by the murderous Herod and with all the Holy children- martyrs and Martyrs of our Faith, both of the old times and the new. Furthermore, we pray that the land of Russia who has given birth to many saints, will never again experience such a terrorist attack, and that her noble people will not mourn any more innocent victims. We pray that for the entire world as well. We also pray that the Holy Spirit will illuminate the darkened minds of the agitators and the evil-doers in order for them to dissociate themselves from their cruel and enormous plans and to seek more humane and peaceful ways of fulfilling their demands, if they have a sense of justice.

May the memory of the innocent victims of the slaughter in Beslan, namely the infants, the children, the adolescents, the parents and the teachers, among whom the teacher John who heroically sacrificed himself, becoming thus a new example and role-model for every teacher, be eternal. Amen.