Kosovo, July 9, 2020
Photo: YouTube screenshot
A new music video from the Emmy Award-winning actor and musician and convert to holy Orthodoxy Jonathan Jackson dedicated to the holy sites of the persecuted Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo was published on June 28 on the YouTube page of the Foundation of Hilandar Monastery.
The song, “Kosovo (Joy of All Who Sorrow),” “was written out of love for the Serbian people and Church, making a personal, artistic and prayerful contribution to the preservation of Kosovo and Metohija,” reads the description under the video.
The video is full of touching scenes of sacred Orthodox sites and the faithful Orthodox people of Kosovo, where the Church faces continuous persecution:
Born into a Protestant family, Jackson embraced the Orthodox faith in 2012 after seeking for the true faith of the martyrs and the Holy Fathers. Since then, Jackson has been a frequent pilgrim to Mt. Athos and other holy sites of the Orthodox Church.
He has dedicated a number of artistic works to holy Orthodoxy. Most recently, he played St. Joseph the Hesychast in a documentary dedicated to the great 20th-century Athonite elder.
The new music video was produced by the Foundation of the Holy Monastery of Hilandar with the blessing of Archimandrite Metodije, the abbot of Hilandar Monastery, the Serbian monastery on Mt. Athos.
You can support Holy Monastery Hilandar with your donations to: https://www.paypal.me/helphilandar.
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Lyrics:
Kosovo (Joy of All Who Sorrow)
A people born of God
A nation set-apart
A beautiful song
Rising in the dark
A glorious sun
Dawning upon us
A lasting-peace
Cut down in the night
But unless a seed dies
How can you know what’s inside?
Kosovo... Kosovo
The world will never know your sorrow
Kosovo... Kosovo
You know the Joy of all who Sorrow
Saint Sava kneels
Right there before Your throne
So many questions
The answers already known
Have we turned away?
Blind to love and truth
Judged by the bones
Of Saints in their tombs
But unless a son be chastised
How will he know what is right?
Kosovo... Kosovo
The world will never know your sorrow
Kosovo... Kosovo
You know the Joy of all who Sorrow
Saint Nikolai
Why do our mothers cry?
So many years
Praying without our home
Centuries of war
And captivity
A history torn
And crucified
But unless a heart sacrifice
How will it know the strength of love?
Kosovo... Kosovo
The world will never know your sorrow
Kosovo... Kosovo
Pray to the Mother of all who Sorrow
