The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, served the Christmas Liturgy at the Saint Sava Temple in Belgrade this morning.
Christmas, the most joyful Christian holiday, is celebrated today according to the Julian calendar.
The service was attended by ministers – Maja Popović, Minister of Justice, and Ivica Dačić, Minister of the Interior, as well as Cardinal Ladislav Nemet. The first Christmas liturgy, at midnight, was served by the assistant to the Patriarch, Bishop Aleksej of Hvosno.
After the service, a message that the head of the SPC traditionally sends on the occasion of Christmas was read in the Saint Sava Temple.
In his message, Patriarch Porfirije dedicated a part to the tragedy in Novi Sad, when 15 people died in the collapse of a canopy at the railway station and two were seriously injured, calling on today’s quarreling brothers to embrace, following the example of Saint Sava, to bring peace to the state.
“We prayerfully cry out to God to take into His arms those who innocently perished in the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station. We look into our hearts and look at each other, praying to the Lord to give us the strength to constantly draw a warning lesson from this tragic event, and other mentioned and unmentioned events, in the country and the world, about the fact that we must be brothers to each other, be human, Christened, sincere, essentially good,” said Patriarch Porfirije, previously mentioning the suffering in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
Recalling that this year marks the 850th anniversary of the birth of Saint Sava, Patriarch Porfirije said that the SPC is “deeply concerned about the current events in our people” and that for this year ahead, a valuable lesson is the reconciliation of quarreling brothers that was carried out by this saint.
“For reconciliation, not only his prayer and his effort were enough, although without them it would not have been possible. It was also necessary for both brothers to extend a hand to each other, to embrace and forgive each other. That was the only true, evangelical way to achieve peace among brothers, in the state and among the people. Saint Sava, inspired by the Gospel of Christ, showed us this and left us a legacy of the pattern of ecclesiastical peacemaking,” said Patriarch Porfirije, adding that “the Church does not make a distinction between brothers.”
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According to him, “a multitude of misfortunes, conflicts, and wars begin with the dehumanization of one’s neighbor, the suppression of the humanity of the other human being,” so it is “crucially important that all of us, as many of us as there are, stop using language in which the other is first called a stranger, then an opponent, then an enemy, and, finally, an inhuman being.”
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, wherever we live, let us bridge the gaps between us, listen to each other, respect each other’s views and opinions, especially when they are different from ours. Let us give up aggression and violence as a way of resolving problems and disagreements,” said Patriarch Porfirije.
In the part of the message dedicated to Kosovo, Patriarch Porfirije said that “the Serbian people in this, their centuries-old homeland, have been the most endangered and unprotected people on the European continent for a quarter of a century.”
“Exposed to pressure, arrests, the violent seizure of municipal self-governments, the closure of local health services, the seizure of land and other private property, the destruction of cemeteries and cultural monuments, they are constantly intimidated and persecuted,” enumerated Patriarch Porfirije.
As he added, “we, brothers and sisters of ours in Kosovo and Metohija, look at you with love, respect, and gratitude, we admire your faith, your courage, your patience, and your endurance.”
“As we believe in the words of the Lord that ‘blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,’ so we believe that the day will dawn when for you and for all our people ‘the Sun of righteousness, Christ our God, will shine’ and that you too will be filled with His righteousness,” said Patriarch Porfirije.
The holiday of Christmas is celebrated for three days. On the first day, before dawn, all the bells in Orthodox churches ring, announcing the arrival of the Christmas celebration.
On Christmas, early in the morning, a položajnik comes to the house. This is a guest, by agreement with the host, although it can also be a random visitor. He offers a toast to the household, wishing them health, good luck, and money.
Before the liturgy, dough is kneaded from which a loaf of bread is baked – česnica, in which a coin is placed. It is placed on the table, where a festive lunch has already been set, turned like a slava cake, and broken into as many pieces as there are members of the household.
The mutual greeting is Hristos se rodi and Vaistinu se rodi. This is how people greet each other from Christmas to Epiphany.
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Source: N1, Photo: Printscreen RTS