His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Mr. On May 26, 2024, the Week of the Weakened, Porfirje celebrated the Archdiocesan Liturgy at the Church of St. Sava on Vračar.
Thanking the Most Reverend Bishops Justin of Western Europe, Stefan of Remesian and Jovan of Hum, as well as Archimandrite Raphael of the Monastery of Podmain, priests Milos Trisic of Tuzla and Dejan Mandic of Kopra and other ministers, Patriarch Porphyrios emphasized:
- Through today's Gospel, the Lord invites us to imitate the one who was sick with many diseases for 38 years, but through his perseverance and not giving up, through his faith and trust in Christ, he was able to overcome his diseases, and the cause of his disease, like every other disease in the experience of fallen man, is revealed at the end of this Gospel story, when the Lord releases the healed man and says: Go and sin no more!
- The cause of every disease of the human race is sin, i.e. a wrong way of being in relation to God and in relation to what we have received from God, that is, in relation to our nature," His Holiness Patriarch emphasized, stressing that the struggle for healing from every illness and every disease of ours, constantly and parallel to every other feat and struggle, we must first of all fight sin in ourselves, passion in us, because it is sin against our health.
- Give Lord, that we also strive to fulfill the Gospel of Christ, as Bishop Justin said today (video of the sermon on TV Temple HERE ) and Father Raphael last night (news on TV Temple HERE ), but as our whole tradition also says, beginning with this struggle, realizing our fall and weakness, realizing that we are sick and that the ultimate goal of our healing and salvation is not just the absence of disease, but the union of love with Christ, the fullness of life, meaning and joy, which is absent without Christ," concluded Patriarch Porphyrios.
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