Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia presided on August 9, 2025, the feast day of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, at the Divine Liturgy in the church built in honour of this glorious saint in Mirijevo.
Addressing the faithful gathered in the temple, whose foundations were laid in 2002 with a specially crafted granite stone brought from Hilandar Monastery, the Patriarch said:
“We gather to pray to Him, our Lord, for our salvation, for the salvation of our loved ones, to pray for peace, as we say at the very beginning of the Divine Liturgy — for the salvation of the whole world, for our peace, for peace within us and peace among us.”
Recalling that everything good and virtuous is a gift from God, and that everything from Him is perfect, the Patriarch emphasized:
“God is absolute perfection, above any perfection or goodness we can imagine. Nothing can be added to Him, and nothing can be taken away. We can only, by His grace and love, be granted that something is revealed in our hearts and souls when we walk the path of humility and spiritual struggle towards His truth. Likewise, nothing can be added or taken away from His Church.
That is why the notions — sometimes mistaken, sometimes even malicious — that say the Gospel must be modernized, that the Church must be modernized, that the word of Christ must be modernized, are wrong. As if the Church lacks anything, as if the Gospel lacks anything, as if there is something concerning salvation and eternity that is missing in the Church, or something excessive that needs to be removed.
In all times, there have been those who believed the Church should be aligned with the spirit of the age — which in reality means aligning the Church with their own mold and fitting into their own measure that which is immeasurable, that which exists to lead each of us individually, and the whole world, into the mystery of life beyond time and space, into the mystery of eternity — that is, into the mystery of unbreakable communion with God.
The Church is eternal because the Lord, as its Head, is eternal. He is above time and space. The Church does not exist to adapt to every contemporary spirit of the age, but to transform it, to embrace and permeate it, and to call and lead all into transformation. In this sense, there is no one who can stand above the Church, to the left, to the right, or beneath it. In each of these cases, anyone placing themselves above the Church is, in truth, to the left, to the right, beneath, and outside the Church — and can add nothing to it, nor take anything away from it.”
The Divine Liturgy was concelebrated at the Divine Liturgy by Bishop Tikhon of Moravica together with the clergy of the Mirijevo church of Saint Panteleimon.
Source: spc.sr
