On the day when the Church commemorates the restoration of the veneration of icons in 843, during the reign of Empress Theodora and Patriarch Methodius, the faithful people of the capital gathered beneath the vaults of the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar on the Sunday of Orthodoxy to prayerfully participate in the Divine Liturgy presided over by Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia.
“Today, the first Sunday of Great Lent, is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Sunday of the Orthodox Faith, because on this day we celebrate the triumph of the true and right faith, knowing that if we do not believe in the right way, we cannot live rightly either; for as our faith is, so is our life. As we believe, so we live.
If the principle by which we believe is that man is a wolf to man, then we will organize our lives accordingly. Sadly, brothers and sisters, we see that the time in which we live is one in which people more often rely on that principle than on the truth of faith and God’s commandment of love.
Our foundation is faith in Christ and faith in His word, faith in His Gospel, faith that God’s commandment is truth and righteousness, and that only if we hold fast to Christ’s word, if we truly believe in it, can we have real and true life,” preached the Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Concelebrating with the Patriarch were: Vicar Bishop Nikon of Jenopolje; Protopresbyters-Stavrophores Radič Radičević, Radivoje Panić, and Dimitrije Kasapis; Protopresbyter Đorđe Stojisavljević, Chief of the Cabinet of the Serbian Patriarch; Protopresbyters Nenad Jovanović, Predrag Prodić, Dragan Šovljanski, and Branislav Kličković; Priests Dalibor Stojadinović, Miroslav Vasić, and Nemanja Kalem; Protodeacons Dragan Radić and Radomir Vrućinić; and Deacon Vasilije Perić.
Source: spc.rs
