His Holiness Patriarch St. Porphyrios celebrated the Holy Liturgy at the Church of St. Sava in Vrakara on December 31, 2023.
Tumacha is a homily on the reading of the Apostle and the Holy Eucharist, a lesson on the nature of faith, the genealogy and the parable of the Lord's Supper, His Holiness pointed out that faith must be the object on which the Church stands and that they must be saints in faith, able to comprehend the incomprehensible and see the imperfect. - St. Paul the Apostle teaches us that faith is not something that one accepts only with reason, only with logic or only with the heart, it is the whole person: mind, heart and body are not subject to what might tempt faith, the Patriarch said.
- Faith is a conviction, it is a unity, it is a covenant, it is an exchange between two people. Where there is also an exchange between the spiritual and divine life, which is given in advance in the Gospel and the Law, and our Jewish life, which depends on our origin, where we voluntarily and in poverty dedicate ourselves and our God, we have faith and that which cannot be described by logic, which cannot be comprehended by the mind and understood in this sense.
The Obraћajuћi are a believing people, the Patriarch is wise in his speeches, and there is no magic formula in the sense of declaring oneself a believer, and I say to myself, "I believe everything that is written in the Jevanђeљu." otherwise I would not be willing to let that faith speak out. - Staying in the faith faithful, in mercy, not knowing how to discern, discover and rediscover the presence of God," the Patriarch said.
- When we see with our own eyes how fresh the Messiah is, how fresh the miracle is in the sense of the gift of God, in the sense that we should be able to do according to the goodness of God and not run short, - we learn from the saints, and thus follow the example of our forefather Abram, who trusted the Lord unconditionally.
Faith and trust in the other, the neighbor, is the foundation of Jewish life, even from the period of childhood and trust in parents, trust in a mentor and teacher in school, in a fellow dresser and in a fellow messenger of the holy, and for this reason it is said that "where there is more trust, there is more result, and if there is an activity that cannot be done by oneself, it implies that there is another, when from the same faith and trust there is both fruit and result."
- The Blessed Virgin Mary is a vivid example of faith as trust in God, when faith comprehends what logic cannot change in itself, the Patriarch said. - Righteous Joseph, seeing that the Blessed Virgin Mary was burdened, wanted to let her go, not to rebuke her, or the Lord spiritually opened his eyes, so that in union with the Mother of God through faith he would internalize what the archpastor of the Greek Church taught him.
- Faith is not the condemnation of oneself, it is the condemnation of one's pride, selfishness and self-love, it is the condemnation of oneself, one's selfhood, as it were man, called the icon of God, was born and lived in us - he recognized His Holiness and called us to redemption, so that we might have the faith of righteous Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary, as if with a pure heart and mind we had reached the Roђeњe of Christ.
You can read Patriarch Porphyry's speech on this subject in its entirety in the OJDE.
His Holiness was served by His Grace Bishops Stefan of Remezia and Petar Teplicki, archpriests Radivoj Pani and Stojadin Pavlov, archpriests Ђorђe Stojisavљeviћ, Nenad Jovanoviћ, Dragan Šovjanski and Ivan Štrbački, Priest Branislav Klickovi, Protodeacons Radomir Vruћininiћ, Dragan Radić and Mladen Kovačevi, and Protodeacons Sinisa Duvjakov and Žežko Jovanoviћ.
After the Holy Liturgy, on the occasion of the Feast of Otsi, a concert was held in the crypt of the Church of St. Sava in Vračaru. Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia, Bishops Stefan of Remezi and Petar Teplicki, and the Director of the Office for Church and Religious Affairs, Dr. Vladimir Roganović, participated in the concert. At the end of the concert, His Holiness handed out bags for children.
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