Patriarch Porfirije's Easter Epistle: "Ordinary people endure the greatest suffering"

Patriarch Porfirije's Easter Epistle: "Ordinary people endure the greatest suffering"

As he stated, we are called to be one, and every war is a defeat of human dignity and a defeat and shame of every man as an icon of God.

Patriarch Porfirije emphasized that ruthless wars are being waged in many places in the world and that most suffering is endured by ordinary people, and called for prayer to the risen Lord to establish peace as soon as possible and unconditionally stop suffering and allow all the refugees to return to their homes.

The kingdom of Christ, therefore, is not of this world, and that is the gospel of salvation. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world, and with that power we rise to eternal life. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world, Christ's is not of this world, and that is why let us embrace the other as the Lord Himself, because only in that way will we be accepted as His", reads the message of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

It is said that we should turn to love and be aware that the primordial methods of deceiving us with passions and fears in the abuse of the mass media can easily make us people of enslaved consciousness and suppressed conscience, strangers to our heavenly destiny. "Let's beware of the apparent security of a global world that wants to make us impersonal detainees of self-sufficiency. Spending time in the belief that the virtual world of unhealthy imagination and consumption of material goods can achieve true prosperity means being sentenced to life without dignity and freedom," he said.

He points out that in a world that refuses to be "soaked in the light of divine love, labors and sacrifices are not understood in the way of Christ's Golgotha, like the cross after which God's resurrection will come, but as terrible obstacles to personal peace and security."

"May our deep devotion to the baptismal and resurrection destiny of our Serbian people of Saint Sava, preserve us from that, and may our New Testament, Kosovo commitment, lead us to the eternal sense. It is earthly for a small kingdom, and heavenly always and forever," the Patriarch said.

He states that the immortal acts of self-sacrificing love for God and the fatherland have been shown in the past months by many of our doctors, health workers and many other people who have found themselves in difficult and responsible duties. Patriarch said that in the joy of Easter, with special pastoral care and responsibility, the Church sends fatherly greetings and prayers wherever Orthodox Serbs live, especially to those in Kosovo and Metohija, our spiritual and national cradle, telling them that we are aware of their temptations and struggles, but that their mother Church will always be with them as before.

May every Orthodox home be illuminated by the light of the Risen Christ and overshadowed by the power of the joyful song: "Christ is risen. Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tomb", Patriarch and archbishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church say in the Eastern Epistle.