Patriarch Porfirije's historic speech: It is reconciliatory in tone, and he stressed one thing in particular

Photo: Tanjug/Zoran Zestic

Serbian Patriarch Porfirije was enthroned today in the Patriarchate of Pec in Kosovo and Metohija, with a large number of believers in attendance. After saying the enthronement prayer, the patriarch gave a sermon that was above all reconciliatory in tone.

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"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Brethren Hierarchs, presbyters, monks and nuns, faithful people of God. It is due to multiple reasons that we have gathered today in this centuries-old See of Serbian Archbishops and Patriarchs, the stomping ground of theologians, writers, artists and the brightest-minded Serbs of the past.

There are many motives and reasons, but there is only one that is the most important, one and only, without which any other would neither exist, nor would be possible. And the main reason is that the Most Holy Mother of God has gathered us here on the Feast of Her Protection, a Feast in which we commemorate not an event from Her life, as we usually do on other Feasts of the Theotokos, but an event from our life, the life of our Church, the event of Her miraculous apparition in Constantinople in 911, when She covered the gathered faithful with Her honorable protection, appearing immensely beautiful to them in Her splendor, in the beauty of the heavenly existence to which She leads us and for which She prays to God. That beautiful protection of miraculous weaving is a comfort and joy for Christians and all people of good will throughout the centuries and a testifying sign of the care of the Mother of God for those who invoke Her in prayer," said Patriarch Porfirije.

"The celebration of the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos makes us, Orthodox Serbs as well as all other Christians, happy over and over again simply because we understand and remind ourselves again and again that we are the People of God, that we belong to God and that we have His blessing of salvation; that we are in communion with all the Saints, that we have the Home of the Father - our Church, but at the same time that we belong to the family, to our nation and society, but also to the community of all the peoples of the world.

That is how the Most Holy Mother of God - the Beauty of Pec, as the people of these parts call Her after the wonderful and magnificent miracle-working icon before which we pray in this church dedicated to Her - made our today's gathering a holy Liturgy that we served for the salvation of the world, for the salvation of all creation, for the salvation of man, for the salvation of the entire humankind. Therefore, the Holy Liturgy, which is both an icon and the presence of the Kingdom of God among us, is the main reason why we are here today, it is the main reason why the Serbian Patriarch is here today: to pray together with you for all people, for the community of love, peace and good that Christ the Lord and His Most Holy Mother desire," the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) continued.

"All of you gathered here, but also all who are with us in spirit, wherever they are, I invite from this holy place to pray for all people – both for our compatriots and also for everyone with whom we live here, including above all the brothers Albanians - in order for us to build peace together. We are building peace together, as Serbian families built it jointly with Albanian families, who safeguarded this holy place of Pec and the holy Monastery of Decani in good and bad times alike. Those were virtuous Albanians, regardless of the fact that they were Muslims, or precisely because they were Muslims, sincerely believing people, who knew the power of prayer, who knew that in the Orthodox shrines prayers were being offered for them and their children as well, and that God does not choose sides.

I wanted to stress this right at the beginning, to underline it, to emphasize it strongly so that everyone knows, that no one subsequently attributes something else to the Serbian Church: the program of this Patriarch, the program of the Serbian Orthodox Church - while many want to impose unrest on the whole world, when the danger of the most disastrous general war and world cataclysm is increasing - is peace and only peace. That means first of all reconciliation, forgiveness and peace with the one who is in our closest vicinity, with our first neighbor - peace as the only possibility for the survival of both our children and theirs. And it should be clear to all of us in the Balkans that our children are the most important to us who live here, and that we rather than all others have the chance to enable them to live in peace. No one else can give our children such an opportunity, nor is he interested in giving it to them as we are. That is why today, from this holy place, we say to Serbs and Albanians and to all those who are living in this region – let us find strength in ourselves, let us recognize God and look after each other, because the desire for peace complies with the basic tenets of our faith, and the peace is a part of God's providence for the humanity and the entire created world. The peace that comes as a gift from God is stable and unshakable. It is at the same time the inner peace with oneself and outer peace with all people and all creatures."

Patriarch Porfirije added that this is what our ancestors expect from us.

"The Pec Throne is the closest throne to God that our nation has ever built, and that is why the Patriarchate of Pec is our most important and safest house," stressed the patriarch and noted that joint prayer is the source of our community and is above any ideology.

(Telegraf.rs)