On the occasion of the temple celebration, His Holiness Patriarch Mr. Serbian Patriarch. Porfirje celebrated the Holy Liturgy at the Church of St. John Vladimir, Prince of Serbia, in the Medakovic district of Belgrade on June 4, 2024.
Recalling that the word of the Lord is very clear, unambiguous, precise and certainly soft, and at the same time healing and bitter because it requires a feat, effort and a cross, Patriarch Porphyrios emphasized:
- In today's passage from the Gospel of John, the Lord is clear. First, He speaks of the meaning of love and that He is love. In doing so, he does not promise that we will get through this life simply and easily if we keep God's commandments, if we fast and pray. It goes without saying, because that is our natural state, but the Lord says that we will be tested, and He uses a very strong, harsh, cruel word. He says, The world will hate you. It is very important that we realize that the world will hate us and that we must not conform to the spirit of the world, that we must not flirt with it, that our goal must not be to please it. Our goal should be to pray for all people, to have love for all people, because the Lord Himself says: Love your enemies ! So the world will hate you, but you should pray for everyone, forgive everyone, try to love them, because they are also icons of God, because God made them, too.
The full speech of Patriarch Porphyrios can be read HERE .
The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church was served by: Archimandrite Paisije, elected Bishop of Dioclesia; Archimandrite Nektarije, Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod of Bishops; Archpriest-Stavrophors Branko Topalovic, Jovan Blagojevic and Risto Peric; Archpriests Djordje Stojisavljević, head of the Serbian Patriarch's Cabinet, and Dragan Šovljanski; Protopriests Milan Marić and Igor Lukić; Priest Igor Gračun; and Protodeacons Dragan Radić, Radomir Vručinić, Milojko Topalović and Dušan Todorović.
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