The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Patriarch Porfirije, said at the liturgy he served in front of the Honorable Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos that “these days there are some who do not understand what this is about”.
“There are some who despise our humility, the fact that we go to strengthen ourselves in good, to strengthen ourselves in virtue, the fact that we come here with a desire to embrace everyone, to forgive and to ask for forgiveness, the fact that we understand that we are not perfect,” Patriarch Porfirije said in the Church of Saint Sava on Vračar, the Information Service announced.
As he added, “many despise, reject, and slander it out of ignorance, and many precisely because they have not recognized the Lord as their shepherd, because they are deluded and have other messiahs”.
“The Lord loves everyone, and we come here, brothers and sisters, strengthened by our faith and prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, to pray for them as well, to pray that the Lord opens their eyes too, that we never experience any kind of vindictiveness and anger in our hearts, that we never wish any evil upon them either. We pray for them too and we try to love them, to understand them, and to desire that their hearts also be warmed by God’s love and that their spiritual eyes be opened,” Patriarch Porfirije pointed out.
The SPC previously announced that from the evening of May 20, when the relic was brought from the Vatopedi Monastery to be carried for the city’s slava – Spasovdan (Ascension Day), until yesterday at 8:00 PM, 576,793 believers passed through the Church of Saint Sava on Vračar to bow before the Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos, which caused various comments in public.
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Source: N1; Photo: ATA Images