On August 11, 2024, Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia officiated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar.
He was joined in the celebration by the clergy of the Belgrade-Karlovci Archdiocese, with a devout congregation of faithful in attendance.
“He who has faith and strives to live by it lays a solid foundation. This foundation is true and right, ensuring that everything in life aligns as it should. With such a foundation, one perceives the hand of God in all things—His love, His blessings, and His grace.
This perspective transforms the way one sees, thinks, hears, speaks, and acts. No longer do these actions stem from our fallen and flawed nature, but through Christ. With Christ, we think, see, hear, speak, and act, and in doing so, everything in our lives changes.
Where true and genuine faith is absent, and only a superficial declaration of faith exists, everything becomes distorted. Our lives lose their proper foundation, and as a result, we see everything through a twisted lens, obscured and eclipsed by our distorted understanding. Faith, in this sense, is transformative—it is repentance.
Repentance is a profound transformation, a renunciation of our fallen, twisted, angry, and egoistic nature, poisoned by self-interest. It is the rejection of our flawed logic and the earnest effort to adopt the logic of Christ—His rules for life. When we align our minds with Christ’s logic, we begin to think, hear, speak, and see as He does. Through Him, we establish our relationships and community, understanding the weaknesses and infirmities of our neighbors. To speak of Him is to speak of truth, justice, and love,” said the Patriarch.
Source: spc.sr
